Dietitian

Job description

Job responsibilities

WORCESTERSHIRE ACUTE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST

JOB DESCRIPTION

Accountable to:General Team Lead

Reports to:GeneralTeam Lead

Risk Assessment:

The post involves lone working when patients are seen, for privacy reasons in an outpatient consultation room and when alone in the Department office.

Job Purpose:

To manage a caseload of patients offering evidence-based dietetic advice and/or patient centred principles within designated ward areas.

To provide dietetic intervention to patients on a wide range of therapeutic diets in a timely way by working as a member of the dietetic team and other health care professionals.

To take responsibility for prioritising and managing workload, seeking guidance from senior staff whenever required.

To train and update healthcare professionals on nutrition related topics.

To contribute to the Therapy Clinical Governance agenda to further improve the quality of the service.

To provide dietetic advice to patients at 3 hospital sites including group education sessions to help deliver a responsive dietetic service provision.

Key Duties:

Clinical

To function as an autonomous practitioner, working within codes of practice and professional guidelines when providing expert advice to patients on therapeutic diets.

To use clinical judgement and analyse the patient's personal circumstances before formulating a dietary care plan.

To accept clinical responsibility for a caseload of patients and organise this effectively.

To prioritise caseload of inpatients and outpatient referrals received to ensure timely dietetic intervention.

To advise patients in individual consultations on therapeutic diets in Outpatient clinics or via telephone and to inform referrer in writing of dietetic intervention.

To liaise with catering department regarding special dietary requirements

To involve patients in decision- making for their treatment on wards and in outpatient clinics; to inform referrer in writing of dietetic intervention.

To formulate and update diet sheets on specific topics to ensure information is evidence based

To coordinate a safe and effective discharge/transfer of patients from hospital

To attend Departmental meetings and participate in on-going development of the service.

To ensure patient confidentiality is maintained at all times.

Communications

To communicate effectively with the multidisciplinary team, patients carers and relatives regarding the dietetic component of patient

To maintain accurate documentation on-going patient care, including phone contacts in accordance with professional standards.

To communicate with healthcare professionals in implementing Trustwide nutrition related policies.

To work with healthcare professionals to help improve dietetic care and patient experience.

To use computer skills to produce and retrieve clinical information, to communicate to colleagues and for presentations.

Education and Training

To maintain own clinical professional development

To be appraised annually and agree objectives for the year and a personal development plan taking into account personal objectives.

To participate in student training programmes in the Department following attendance on a clinical supervisory skills course.

To contribute to multidisciplinary training programmes linked to nutrition in the Trust

To participate in clinical supervision.

Organisation and Management

To assist teams with day-to-day planning and delivery of patient caseload.

To contribute to the pro-active monitoring and review of the Nutrition & Dietetics service.

To participate in service development projects.

Governance

Clinical:

To demonstrate on-going continuous professional development

To contribute to the implementation of Clinical Governance in the Department.

To carry out clinical audit and present results to promote evidence-based practice.

Non Clinical

To implement Health & Safety in the workplace by maintaining a safe environment for patients, staff and visitors at all times.

To act immediately to rectify unsafe practices.

To report adverse incidents to staff, patients or any other person according to Trust policy.

To attend mandatory training ensuring there is adequate cover for clinical work.

To adhere to all Trust and departmental policies and other statutory requirements such as Infection Control, safeguarding procedures.

Professional

To maintain Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration, adhering to the Standards of Conduct Performance and Ethics.

To maintain own competency to practice through CPD activities

To work within the British Dietetic Association (BDA) code of conduct.

To maintain a professional attitude at all times promoting the role of the Dietitian in the best interest of the patients and profession.

To be legally and professionally accountable for all aspects of own work.

To undertake any other duties which are applicable to the grade of the post that are considered appropriate by the Dietetic Manager.

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Degree / Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics or equivalent qualifications in Dietetics Registered Dietitian recognised by the HCPC

Desirable criteria

Member of the British Dietetic Association

Experience

Essential criteria

Evidence of successful completion of clinical placement or clinical experience in the NHS Able to demonstrate experience in an acute hospital setting Experience in adult nutrition support including oral and enteral nutrition support

Desirable criteria

Experience in dietetic led outpatient clinics Experience of running group patient education settings Experience of nutrition screening (e.g. MUST)

Skills / Knowledge

Essential criteria

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills Ability to assess individuals with complex medical problems and plan their dietetic care Good computer literacy skills Able to act on own initiative

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

Able to work independently Able to recognise own professional limitations and know when to seek advice form senior colleagues

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree/Diploma in Nutrition & Dietetics or equivalent qualifications in Dietetics.
• Registered Dietitian recognised by the HCPC.
• Evidence of CPD
• Post registration clinical dietetic experience in NHS.
• Experienced in all aspects of adult nutrition support, sip feeds , naso-gastric, PEGs, PEJs
• Experience of multi-disciplinary team work.
• Experience of implementing evidence based practice for continuous service improvement.
• Experience of supervising students.
• Experience of contributing to day to day co-ordination of activities in a department.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including observation, listening and empathy skills.
• Able to research evidence based practice and apply to practice.
• Able to justify dietetic decision making in complex patients.
• Able to work to time schedules to meet clinical needs of patients.
• Ability to implement practice supervision.
• Ability to train dietetics students to graduate level.
• Ability to communicate sensitive and emotive information to colleagues/patients.
• Excellent computer skills: Microsoft Office - Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel for data inputting.
• Knowledge of assessing individuals with complex medical problems and to plan their dietetic care.
• Knowledge of disseminating evidence based practice to health care professionals.
• Knowledge of implementing the Clinical Governance Agenda
• Knowledge of implementing change in practice.
• Autonomous practitioner.
• Ability to recognise own professional limitations and when to seek advice from senior colleagues.
• Ability to maintain an effective working relationship in team.
• Self-motivated.

Desirable

• Member of the British Dietetic Association.
• Attendance on clinical educators programme.
• Attendance on relevant accredited courses.
• Member of a specialist interest group

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Charles Hastings Way

Worcester

Worcestershire

WR5 1DD

Employer's website

https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)