Description

• Take the next step in your career in beautiful New Zealand
• Based at Burwood Hospital, Christchurch
• Permanent, part-time role (0.625 FTE, 25 hours per week) providing leadership, education and clinical excellence to patients who are diagnosed with a rheumatology condition
• Join a supportive and experienced team of professionals and become an important member of the multidisciplinary team

About the role

Our Older Persons Physiotherapy team are looking for an experienced and skilled Physiotherapist to join us as an Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist in Rheumatology. This exciting opportunity will see you providing expert physiotherapy for patients with diverse rheumatological conditions and provide specialist rehabilitation within the rheumatology service. They will support patients across the full pathway, from diagnostic assessment clinics to rehabilitation and onward referral to community services.

The role treats a wide variety of conditions referred from GPs and rheumatologists, and we have support from the hand therapy service at Christchurch Hospital for rheumatological conditions of the hand.

This rewarding post requires clinical autonomy, strong decision-making, leadership, teamwork, continuous learning, and holistic, patient-centred care.

We seek a physiotherapist with:

• broad experience in rheumatology
• broad experience in MSK outpatients
• broad experience in pain management

resilience

• a commitment to MDT working
• audit skills
• leadership qualities.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• developing advanced assessment, clinical reasoning, and diagnostic skills for patients with rheumatological disease
• ensuring the day-to-day provision of a high-quality clinical service for patients with rheumatological conditions
• working closely with the leadership team and wider multidisciplinary colleagues to identity and implement service improvement initiatives
• supporting and fostering the development of our physiotherapy team members
• assisting the Allied Health Clinical Manager/Service Manager with the development, provision and monitoring of quality cost-effective clinical services
• maintaining and developing the hydrotherapy service for rheumatology

Additional opportunities include:

• supervising junior staff
• supporting student education
• involvement in audit and service development.

About you

You are an experienced and passionate physiotherapist who thrives in a dynamic, patient-centred environment. With a strong foundation in musculoskeletal and rheumatology care, you bring advanced clinical reasoning, diagnostic skills, and a commitment to delivering high-quality outcomes for patients with complex rheumatological conditions.

To be successful in this role, you will demonstrate the following:

• Demonstrated clinical excellence (a minimum of five years experience post-qualification is desirable) and a keen interest in rheumatology
• Previous experience in a muscuolo-skeletal setting without advanced skill in rheumatology will be considered
• Sound working knowledge of local, national and international health systems is strongly desired
• Experience in training and supervision of staff with the ability to foster and support the development of a team both collectively and on an individual basis is advantageous
• Competency with te ao Mori, tikanga, and te reo Mori or a commitment to starting your journey and taking ownership of your learning and growth
• An interest in quality and service provision
• Registration with the Physiotherapy Board of NZ and current APC is essential

Call New Zealand home

Once offered a position, our internal Health Immigration team can provide free support to you and your family with immigrating to New Zealand. Senior Medical Officers are on Tier 1 of New Zealand's Immigration Green List, which means you are eligible for the Straight to Residence Visa and can apply for New Zealand residency before you arrive.

One of the best things about living and working in New Zealand is the opportunity to experience nature, outdoor adventure and vibrant cities close to where you live and work. You're never far away from your next adventure in New Zealand with access to hiking, skiing, mountain biking, water sports, fine dining, and diving into traditional experiences to learn more about Mori culture across the country.

Working at Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and service our community. We welcome applications from our diverse Mori, Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.

How to apply

To apply please click 'apply now'. All applications must be submitted through our online careers portal. If you have any questions about the role, please contact Alex Jay alexandra.jay@tewhatuora.govt.nz

We will review applications as received and may proceed with the recruitment process, before the closing date of this advert.

We will review applications as received and may proceed with the recruitment process before the closing date of this advert, we encourage you to apply early.

We only accept online applications. Please apply via our website.