Band 5 Community Dietitian Nutrition Support

Job description

Job responsibilities

Main Duties

1. To adhere to the standards of conduct, performance and ethics and the dietitians standards of proficiency of the Health Professions Council.
2. To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of patients within your care.
3. To be aware of your level of responsibility and accountability within the service, being guided by policies, procedures and the support of peers.
4. To remain aware of the limitation of own knowledge and experience and seek advice and guidance as required.
5. To act in a professional manner promoting the organisation, the role of the dietitian and the importance of nutritional care.
6. To be responsible for maintaining and demonstrating own competence to practice through participation in appraisal process and CPD within the framework of the professional portfolio. This may include membership of a BDA specialist interest group.

Clinical

1. To undertake comprehensive assessment of patients including those with diverse or complex nutritional needs, seeking support as appropriate.
2. To plan and deliver individualised nutritional care plans based on comprehensive assessment of needs and knowledge of evidence based practice, modifying the care plan as required. This will include practical and emotional support for terminally ill patients and their carers.
3. To negotiate and agree dietary or nutritional goals with individual patients and/or their carers using motivational interviewing, counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy tools as applicable. This may include identifying individual barriers to change and helping clients to manage them.

1. To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.

1. To be responsible for planning and organising own caseload and other work priorities to meet service and patient priorities, seeking guidance where appropriate.

1. To provide dietetic care to patients in a range of venues across the City including clinics, community hospitals, nursing homes and patients own homes.

1. To work with hospital catering staff to develop and monitor menus that contribute to adequate nutritional intakes for patients and residents. This will include those on therapeutic diets.

1. To promote and monitor the use of the nutritional screening tool used in the community hospitals and support the promotion of the city wide community screening tool within nursing homes.

1. To support the smooth running of the home enteral feeding service by responding to queries as applicable.
2. To be responsible for planning and organising own caseload and other work priorities to meet service and patient priorities.
3. To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient records in line with the code of conduct and Trust policies. This will include the use of electronic records and the use of a mobile device in patient settings including patients homes
4. To provide a customer focussed service within the resources available
5. To communicate effectively with colleagues within and outside the department to facilitate effective patient care, service development and multidisciplinary working.
6. To support the supervision, teaching, co-ordination and assessment of students and assistants.

1. To work flexibly within the job description and carry out other duties as

required.

Health Education

1. With support of senior colleagues identify, implement and evaluate strategies, which can be used to influence nutritional choices for the individual and within the community, recognising the diversity within the City.
2. To produce practical advice and resources by interpreting, translating and critically evaluating evidence and making this relevant to the intended audience.
3. To plan, deliver and evaluate health education sessions to groups of clients on agreed topics.
4. To plan, deliver and evaluate training on nutrition to other professionals

1. To provide education and training to clinicians, health care staff and care home staff on nutritional screening, food fortification, cost effective prescribing of nutritional supplement products and patient monitoring

Administration and Clinical Governance

1. To collect activity statistics within agreed timescales.
2. To contribute to dietetic staff meetings, journal reviews, peer review, team meetings, clinical supervision and working groups. To undertake mandatory training as required by the trust.
3. To contribute to department audit and research programmes.
4. To disseminate appropriate evidence/research findings and wherever possible ensure the integration of evidence/research into practice.

1. To disseminate appropriate evidence/learning and wherever possible ensure that this is integrated into practice.

Other

1. To undertake other duties commensurate with this grade of post in

agreement with the relevant line manager.

1. To minimise the Trusts environmental impact wherever possible, including recycling, switching off lights, computers, monitors and equipment when not in use. Helping to reduce paper waste by minimising printing/copying and reducing water usage, reporting faults and heating/cooling concerns promptly and minimising travel. Where the role includes the ordering and use of supplies or equipment the post holder will consider the environmental impact of purchases.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Dietitian registered with Health Professions Council (HCPC)
• Degree or equivalent in Dietetics
• Evidence of continual professional development

Experience

Essential

• Understanding of community dietetics
• Evidence of ability to generate written communication that is relevant, concise, accurate and legible
• Evidence of an ability to plan and manage own time
• Demonstrate knowledge of application of Health Professions Council Code of Conduct and Standards of Proficiency for Dietitians
• Demonstrate a sound knowledge and application of up-to-date evidence based clinical trends and practices in nutrition support

Desirable

• Evidence of an ability to demonstrate individual and team responsibility in respect of health and safety

Experience

Essential

• An ability to learn and apply knowledge appropriately
• An ability to be very flexible in a changing environment
• An ability to demonstrate a commitment to team working
• An ability to travel to different venues within the city on a daily basis transporting scales and other equipment

Desirable

• An ability to work independently
• An ability to use tact and diplomacy where necessary

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

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

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS FT

Address

Moseley Hall Hospital

Alcester Road

Birmingham

B13 8JL

Employer's website

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