Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for three enthusiastic, hardworking individuals with good organisational skills to join the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust Dietetic Team, as a Dietetic Assistant. We are a friendly and supportive trust-wide team, providing a comprehensive dietetic service. Your role would be to support the dietitians in providing an excellent, high quality service and helping the dietetic service run smoothly. This would entail appointing patients in clinics, writing letters, general administration tasks, answering patient queries and problems, training patients in the use of enteral feeding tubes and equipment. Following appropriate training, you will also be seeing or contacting patients on behalf of the dietitians following specific policies and procedures.
The post-holders will also have the opportunity to participate in audits and research, and to develop presentation skills.
You will have a positive attitude, be to use your initiative have a flexible approach, excellent communication and time management skills, and the ability to liaise effectively with a wide range of staff, patients and the public. You will be happy working in a fast-paced environment and have a good working knowledge of IT based systems. There is an opportunity to work full time or part time.
If this is you, do not hesitate: we look forward to reading your application.
This post will commence from April 2025
Main duties of the job
- To provide administrative and organisational support to the Oncology, Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) Community Dietetic Outreach Services, and Paediatric Dietetic Service based at Lincoln County Hospital, but covering the area of the Lincolnshire CCG Partnership.
- To be the first point of contact for the dietetic service, dealing with enquiries, and prioritising responses
- To ensure clinics run according to department standards
- To ensure Patients are seen according to departmental standards
- To create and manage patient Databases
- To support the dietitians in the delivery of our service; reviewing patient's progress according to departmental procedures, producing letters and reports, delivering presentations as required.
- To enable our patients to have a stress free and positive experience of our service.
About us
Our Trust is situated in the beautiful county of Lincolnshire and is one of the biggest acute hospital trusts in England, serving a population of more than 700,000 people. We provide acute and specialist services to people in Lincolnshire and neighbouring counties. We have an annual income of £643 million (20/21) and we employ nearly 8,500 people.
Our Board have recently agreed a new vision statement - "Outstanding Care Personally Delivered" - stating their ambition for our Trust to be among the best.
We also have a five year Integrated Improvement Plan setting out how we will achieve our strategic objectives, for patients, services, people and partners, the last recognising that our future success depends on our ability to ensure the Lincolnshire healthcare system is successful in achieving its ambition to help people live healthier lives and provide care closer to where people live.
Our latest CQC report increased our ratings for being effective and well-led from 'Requires Improvement' to 'Good'. Our rating for caring remained as 'Good'.
This is in recognition of the huge amount of work that our amazing staff have done to improve the quality of care for our patients in recent years.
We are committed to helping our staff balance their work and home lives and ensure they feel supported, valued and appreciated
Job description
Job responsibilities
- To be the first point of contact for the Oncology, Home Enteral Nutrition, Paediatric and Community Dietetic Outreach Services and to provide relevant information as requested.
- To deal with enquiries from patients, health professionals, community members and external organisations in a professional and efficient manner.
- To use initiative to prioritise requests and deal with urgent situations as they arise.
- To be flexible to the needs of the service
- To have highly developed knowledge and skills in word processing packages, presentations and email to produce letters, reports, documents and training packages as required.
- To create, develop, maintain and update service databases
- To enter patients information onto the relevant databases, and prepare the patients record cards and files.
- To create, develop and maintain manual and computerised filing systems, enabling timely and accurate information retrieval.
- To be responsible for organisation of clinics, including preparation for clinics.
- Ensure staff and patients are aware of the clinics and times.
- Arrange clinic and group sessions and book appointments for patients
- To retrieve and file patient record cards prior to and after clinics
- To type correspondence concerning outcomes of clinics and other correspondence as required, using audio systems and from hand written communications.
- To respond to routine correspondence on behalf of the Home Enteral Nutrition Service.
- To undertake general office duties for the Team, including ordering of stationery, printing and posting letters and other duties as required by the Site Lead Dietitian
- To be responsible for organising administrative tasks
- To support the Dietetic services with administrative duties including typing, photocopying, faxing, ordering, booking appointments and answering telephones
- Dealing with post and distributing accordingly.
- To prioritise workload assigned by the team, including registering and prioritising acute and community referrals, maintaining up to date information for the department, and completing requested tasks.
- To organise and maintain the Dietitians electronic diaries, making appointments, arranging meetings and booking venues.
- To arrange home visits and clinic appointments for the Dietitians and putting these in their diaries
- To see and advise patients in dietetic assistant clinics according to protocols and following achievement of relevant competencies.
- To process referrals received from hospital dietitians and other discharging bodies to the Home Enteral Nutrition Service, paediatric and outreach services.
- To ensure incomplete referrals are re-directed and acknowledged to referrers
- To liaise with the referring hospitals discharging patients to the Home Enteral Nutrition Service and paediatric services, prior to the patients discharge.
- To receive and log paediatric referrals and contact parents/guardians regarding appointment times
- To send out letters to new patients, giving contact numbers and explanation of the service.
- To develop organise and maintain effective office systems for the Home Enteral Nutrition Team including filing systems, resource cataloguing and collection of qualitative and quantitative evaluation.
- To liaise with GPs, district nurses and the Feeding Companys Delivery Service regarding any changes made by the Dietitian to the patients feeding regimen and ancillaries/accessories.
- To input client information/changes as supplied by the Dietitian onto relevant systems and assist in keeping patients records updated.
- To check monthly expenditure sheets sent by the Home Delivery Company, and cross check with Home Enteral Nutrition patient database.
- To raise requisitions for the Home Enteral Nutrition and Paediatric Service using the electronic ordering system.
- To arrange and attend Service meetings, type agendas and take minutes as necessary; to ensure that any follow up actions from the meetings are undertaken and that other relevant documentation is prepared and distributed appropriately.
- To update patient literature using Publisher, ensuring all information is in Trust format.
- To organise staff training sessions(internal/external) g. care homes/ community nurses, booking rooms, sending flyers and letters, co-ordinating speakers and contributors.
- To set up a system to book and log attendance on Team run training courses
- To prepare training materials for dietetic staff, this may include hand-outs/PowerPoint presentations and overheads.
- Take responsibility for co-ordinating student shadowing of the Home Enteral Nutrition Service (including paediatric clinics).
- To present on training sessions and patient groups once the required knowledge has been gained
- To be responsible for the maintenance of adequate stock levels of resources, e.g. stationery and ancillaries, ordering these when needed.
- With relevant training, to use dietary analysis software to input data from patient food diaries and retrieve the analysis figures. This requires knowledge of patients nutritional intake, background, use of food tables, portion sizes and specific IT skills.
- To be responsible for inputting data into the relevant IT system and generate reports as required on a regular basis
- Record, maintain and process data using systems in place, obtaining training as and when required
- With relevant training to use the Trust data system to provide dietitians with up-to-date blood and swab results.
- To attend and participate in Professional Practice sessions and undertake educational developmental programmes as directed by the Line Manager
- To contribute to and participate in departmental audits and research as required and in conjunction with the supervising Dietitian.
- Assist the Dietitians in carrying out weight checks and progress reviews on patients as required.
- To be responsible for developing and producing reports. Identifying system and data errors and taking steps to rectify them
- To adhere to all dietetic service and Trust procedures, policies and protocols
Job description
Job responsibilities
- To be the first point of contact for the Oncology, Home Enteral Nutrition, Paediatric and Community Dietetic Outreach Services and to provide relevant information as requested.
- To deal with enquiries from patients, health professionals, community members and external organisations in a professional and efficient manner.
- To use initiative to prioritise requests and deal with urgent situations as they arise.
- To be flexible to the needs of the service
- To have highly developed knowledge and skills in word processing packages, presentations and email to produce letters, reports, documents and training packages as required.
- To create, develop, maintain and update service databases
- To enter patients information onto the relevant databases, and prepare the patients record cards and files.
- To create, develop and maintain manual and computerised filing systems, enabling timely and accurate information retrieval.
- To be responsible for organisation of clinics, including preparation for clinics.
- Ensure staff and patients are aware of the clinics and times.
- Arrange clinic and group sessions and book appointments for patients
- To retrieve and file patient record cards prior to and after clinics
- To type correspondence concerning outcomes of clinics and other correspondence as required, using audio systems and from hand written communications.
- To respond to routine correspondence on behalf of the Home Enteral Nutrition Service.
- To undertake general office duties for the Team, including ordering of stationery, printing and posting letters and other duties as required by the Site Lead Dietitian
- To be responsible for organising administrative tasks
- To support the Dietetic services with administrative duties including typing, photocopying, faxing, ordering, booking appointments and answering telephones
- Dealing with post and distributing accordingly.
- To prioritise workload assigned by the team, including registering and prioritising acute and community referrals, maintaining up to date information for the department, and completing requested tasks.
- To organise and maintain the Dietitians electronic diaries, making appointments, arranging meetings and booking venues.
- To arrange home visits and clinic appointments for the Dietitians and putting these in their diaries
- To see and advise patients in dietetic assistant clinics according to protocols and following achievement of relevant competencies.
- To process referrals received from hospital dietitians and other discharging bodies to the Home Enteral Nutrition Service, paediatric and outreach services.
- To ensure incomplete referrals are re-directed and acknowledged to referrers
- To liaise with the referring hospitals discharging patients to the Home Enteral Nutrition Service and paediatric services, prior to the patients discharge.
- To receive and log paediatric referrals and contact parents/guardians regarding appointment times
- To send out letters to new patients, giving contact numbers and explanation of the service.
- To develop organise and maintain effective office systems for the Home Enteral Nutrition Team including filing systems, resource cataloguing and collection of qualitative and quantitative evaluation.
- To liaise with GPs, district nurses and the Feeding Companys Delivery Service regarding any changes made by the Dietitian to the patients feeding regimen and ancillaries/accessories.
- To input client information/changes as supplied by the Dietitian onto relevant systems and assist in keeping patients records updated.
- To check monthly expenditure sheets sent by the Home Delivery Company, and cross check with Home Enteral Nutrition patient database.
- To raise requisitions for the Home Enteral Nutrition and Paediatric Service using the electronic ordering system.
- To arrange and attend Service meetings, type agendas and take minutes as necessary; to ensure that any follow up actions from the meetings are undertaken and that other relevant documentation is prepared and distributed appropriately.
- To update patient literature using Publisher, ensuring all information is in Trust format.
- To organise staff training sessions(internal/external) g. care homes/ community nurses, booking rooms, sending flyers and letters, co-ordinating speakers and contributors.
- To set up a system to book and log attendance on Team run training courses
- To prepare training materials for dietetic staff, this may include hand-outs/PowerPoint presentations and overheads.
- Take responsibility for co-ordinating student shadowing of the Home Enteral Nutrition Service (including paediatric clinics).
- To present on training sessions and patient groups once the required knowledge has been gained
- To be responsible for the maintenance of adequate stock levels of resources, e.g. stationery and ancillaries, ordering these when needed.
- With relevant training, to use dietary analysis software to input data from patient food diaries and retrieve the analysis figures. This requires knowledge of patients nutritional intake, background, use of food tables, portion sizes and specific IT skills.
- To be responsible for inputting data into the relevant IT system and generate reports as required on a regular basis
- Record, maintain and process data using systems in place, obtaining training as and when required
- With relevant training to use the Trust data system to provide dietitians with up-to-date blood and swab results.
- To attend and participate in Professional Practice sessions and undertake educational developmental programmes as directed by the Line Manager
- To contribute to and participate in departmental audits and research as required and in conjunction with the supervising Dietitian.
- Assist the Dietitians in carrying out weight checks and progress reviews on patients as required.
- To be responsible for developing and producing reports. Identifying system and data errors and taking steps to rectify them
- To adhere to all dietetic service and Trust procedures, policies and protocols
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- GCSE in Maths and English Or equivalent qualification/experience working with Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and databases
- Knowledge of a range of secretarial procedures.
Desirable
- Audio typing
- NVQ 2 in customer service
- Typing and word processing qualification
- ECDL Pre 2013 Modules 1-7. Post 2013 Base Module
- NVQ3, RSA3
Previous Experience
Essential
- Word processing knowledge
- Microsoft Office
- Understanding of administration systems
- Previous experience in working with members of the public
- Previous experience of working as a member of a team
- Previous experience of working in an office environment
- Administrative experience
Desirable
- Experience of working within a healthcare environment
- Experience in co-ordinating group education activities
- Ability to touch-type
Knowledge Skills and aptitudes
Essential
- Excellent telephone manner
- Excellent organisational skills
- Ability to take minutes, type letters and minutes from notes, quickly, accurately and efficiently
- Excellent IT skills including Word, PowerPoint and Excel
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to work both independently within defined parameters and within a team
- Ability to respond to and prioritise identified tasks
- Excellent attention to detail
- Ability to work in and adapt to a changing environment
- To have respect for colleagues, patients and carers as individuals
- Ability to demonstrate empathy and sensitivity to patients and carers
- Ability to use initiative and know own limitations and development needs
- Ability to arrange events and meetings for staff
- Understanding of the need to follow policies and procedures
- Understanding the need for confidentiality
- Ability to evidence/demonstrate key values and behaviours in line with the Trust framework
Specific Requirements
Essential
- Ability to work as part of a team and on own initiative
- Ability to prioritise workload
- Personally and professionally accountable
- Able to self-motivate
- Ability to be flexible, adaptable and reliable
- Ability to demonstrate ULHT Values
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- GCSE in Maths and English Or equivalent qualification/experience working with Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and databases
- Knowledge of a range of secretarial procedures.
Desirable
- Audio typing
- NVQ 2 in customer service
- Typing and word processing qualification
- ECDL Pre 2013 Modules 1-7. Post 2013 Base Module
- NVQ3, RSA3
Previous Experience
Essential
- Word processing knowledge
- Microsoft Office
- Understanding of administration systems
- Previous experience in working with members of the public
- Previous experience of working as a member of a team
- Previous experience of working in an office environment
- Administrative experience
Desirable
- Experience of working within a healthcare environment
- Experience in co-ordinating group education activities
- Ability to touch-type
Knowledge Skills and aptitudes
Essential
- Excellent telephone manner
- Excellent organisational skills
- Ability to take minutes, type letters and minutes from notes, quickly, accurately and efficiently
- Excellent IT skills including Word, PowerPoint and Excel
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to work both independently within defined parameters and within a team
- Ability to respond to and prioritise identified tasks
- Excellent attention to detail
- Ability to work in and adapt to a changing environment
- To have respect for colleagues, patients and carers as individuals
- Ability to demonstrate empathy and sensitivity to patients and carers
- Ability to use initiative and know own limitations and development needs
- Ability to arrange events and meetings for staff
- Understanding of the need to follow policies and procedures
- Understanding the need for confidentiality
- Ability to evidence/demonstrate key values and behaviours in line with the Trust framework
Specific Requirements
Essential
- Ability to work as part of a team and on own initiative
- Ability to prioritise workload
- Personally and professionally accountable
- Able to self-motivate
- Ability to be flexible, adaptable and reliable
- Ability to demonstrate ULHT Values
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
