Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Dietetic Assistant Practitioner

This job is now closed

Job summary

This 0.4WTE post will focus on supporting dietitians to deliver care across all inpatient and outpatient services based at the Royal Worcestershire Hospital, Worcester. Training will be available to allow you to review patients within the Dietetic Assistant Practitioner scope of practice.

We are a department of 32 dietitians working across our two general hospital sites. Our experienced team contributes to national dietetic specialist groups, publishes articles and presents at the BDA research symposium/ clinical conferences.

We actively encourage audit and service development, and offer supervision programmes, CPD, and regular team meetings. You will be involved in student training as we offer Coventry University A, B, C student placements. Specialist outpatient clinics are available if you would like to combine both inpatient and outpatient work.

Main duties of the job

Work under the guidance of the dietitians to provide an efficient and effective dietetic service by applying your own dietetic and nutritional knowledge in a clinical environment, after training.

Assist dietitians in implementing and monitoring the nutritional care of patients in hospital under the supervision of a registered dietitian within the British Dietetic Association (BDA) Professional Code of Conduct for Dietetic Assistants.

Undertake administrative and clerical duties as required by the dietetic staff, including processing referrals through IT systems, writing letters, manage clinic appointments and waiting lists, ordering feed equipment, maintain feed stock.

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

Best services for local people
Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
Best use of resources
Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Date posted

28 June 2024

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£25,147 to £27,596 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

C9365-24-0813

Job locations

Charles Hastings Way

Worcester

Worcestershire

WR5 1DD

Job description

Job responsibilities

Knowledge

To have an understanding of macro/ micro nutrients and food groups, for example, carbohydrates, proteins.

To have an understanding of the principles of nutrition support in dietetics

Clinical

To undertaking specific tasks as directed by the supervising dietitian working within the BDA Professional Code of Conduct for dietetic assistants.

To review and modify dietetic care plans carefully under current guidelines and refer issues outside of capability to the dietitian.

To carry out anthropometrics for example, hand grip strength, mid-upper arm circumference.

To estimate the amount of nutritional intake from a diet history and/or food record chart.

To record and report weight, height, body mass index, percentage weight loss to inform dietetic intervention

To record biochemistry if instructed by the dietitian

To practice within food safety and hygiene guidelines.

To carry out dietary analysis on behalf of dietitian using computer software.

To identify patients food choices/ preferences and liaise with catering/ ward staff to meet patient requirements

To carry out taste test trials of oral nutritional supplements with patients to establish preferences

Communication

To communicate with patients to gain consent prior to obtaining dietetic and medical information.

To communicate with nursing staff to check food record charts are being completed for patients referred to the dietitian

To communicate with catering, housekeeping, nursing and medical staff to provide information relating to personal and cultural food preferences of patients.

To communicate to the multidisciplinary team face-to-face and via medical notes/ other clinical noting paper /IT systems

Stock Control

To maintain stock level of diet sheets for department and order in a timely way from XEROX printing department.

To order feeds, supplements and giving sets from the enteral feed company in a timely manner.

To maintain a stock of enteral feeding pumps across Trust sites and organise their delivery to wards prior to patients being discharged home.

To maintain stock of nutritional samples for use in out-patient clinic and rotate supplements so that they are in correct date order.

Training & Education

To update health care professionals on new dietary products, e.g. trial of new sip feeds.

To help dietitians with displays for national events such as Trust a Dietitian and Nutrition and Hydration week

To help dietitians with training events within the Trust or carry out training events under the guidance of a dietitian

To be involved in training dietetic A,B,C placement students

Administration

To register patients with the home enteral feeding company, complete registration forms and amend dietary information as instructed by a dietitian.

To answer the department telephone and take messages off the telephone and deal with simple enquires.

To assist in creating and sending out templated letters under the direction of the dietitian

To send relevant dietetic information to patients and GPs as directed by the dietitian.

To obtain or update manufacturers information as requested by a dietitian.

To undertake other administrative dueties to ensure the effective running of the dietetic department

General Activities

To follow trust policies and guidelines

To plan and prioritise clinical and administrative workload on a day-to-day basis under the guidance of a dietitian.

To help co-ordinate dietetic assistant duties along with other dietetic assistants.

To attend dietetic departmental meetings and contribute.

To assist with data collection under the supervision of the dietitians.

To attend relevant internal and external professional and clinical training linked to dietetic assistant practioner role identified in personal development reviews.

To maintain strict confidentiality of patient information in accordance with Clinical Governance guidelines.

To participate in the Trusts annual programme of Personal Development Review (PDR), identify own training needs and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements.

To have an understanding and comply with the Trusts framework of Policies and Procedures.

To accurately record statistics on patient activity in compliance with Trust and Departmental requirements.

To provide cover for administrative colleagues/ dietetic assistant practitioners during periods of leave.

To promote and maintain health and safety in the work place.

To keep mandatory training updated.

To complete relevant dietetics records and medical notes in accordance with professional departmental guidelines on record keeping.

To be able to commute between Trust sites by having access to transportation as required.

To be able to spend periods of time walking to and from wards and between departments on site

To be able to cope with potentially distressing work situations, for example, working with people who are end of life, have a chronic disease, or are upset and distressed.