Acute Dietitian

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Assess and treat a designated caseload of patients on allocated wards and in one outpatient clinic per week (including telephone and videoconference clinics) with support from Band 7 team lead and experienced Band 6 dietitians, and maintain accurate and up-to-date clinical records.

Add to training of other staff across the Trust including use and promotion of the MUST screening tool and use of special diets and specialist nutritional feeds and supplements.

Contribute to training and supervision of student dietitians.

Commit to the wider development of the dietetic service and nutritional provision within Torbay and South Devon, with support from the Acute Team of Dietitians and Team Lead.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication and working relationships

To communicate and establish working relationships with:

• Patients and carers
• Acute dietetics team including team lead and head of nutrition and dietetics
• Dietetic support workers and admin support teams
• Other acute and secondary care specialist dietetic teams
• Medical and nursing ward and community staff
• Pharmacy
• Catering department
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Other Allied Health Professionals
• Other health and social care professionals across the ICO in primary and secondary care

Planning and organisation

• To manage own clinical caseload as an autonomous practitioner as part of the acute dietetic team.
• To manage own time, prioritise clinical referrals and manage the demands received from different parts of the service.
• To collate evidence to evaluate this post with support from other members of the team. For example, identifying the strengths of service provision, health outcomes and patient satisfaction
• To plan, organise, deliver and evaluate training sessions to a variety of groups including ward staff, other health and social care professionals.Training may be face to face or using Microsoft Teams e.g. MUST training

Analytical and judgement

• With support, to contribute to MDT discussions about medically, socially and ethically challenging patients with support and supervision from the acute dietetic team (for example, feeding dilemmas to support decision making with feeding plans, patients lacking mental capacity, end of life care, best interest meetings, safeguarding and PEG assessments).

Responsibility and accountability

• To provide a dietetic service to referred patients on allocated wards and/or in outpatient clinics as part of the acute dietetic team.
• Understand own limitations of professional practice and when to seek further advice and guidance.
• To be aware of, identify and raise safeguarding issues observed during clinical practice.
• To plan, deliver and evaluate training on nutrition to other health and social care professionals.
• To provide cover for specialist dietitians (with appropriate training and supervision) during periods of leave
• To carry out other duties as agreed by the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Team Lead including possibility of rotation into other defined specialist areas.

Responsibility for patients and client care

• To undertake nutritional assessments and formulate patient centred dietetic care plans with the patient and carers. This includes calculation of nutritional requirements; interpret biochemistry results and assessing the efficacy, safety and routes of nutritional support.
• Use behaviour change and advanced communication techniques where useful.
• To provide high quality, complex nutritional and dietetic advice enabling patients to make informed choices about their own health
• To maintain accurate and timely documentation of patient interactions and clinical care provided

Policy and service responsibility

• To work together with direct team and the wider Dietetic team to deliver a quality, evidence based service.
• To provide resources such as patient information leaflets, feed regimes, recipes and menu plans.
• To contribute to the wider service development of the Dietetic Team.
• To follow Trust Policies and Procedures.
• To undertake clinical practice in line with local policy and guidelines, including nutrition screening policies and using oral nutritional supplements in line with the local Formulary.
• To promote the role and value of the Dietitian in all aspects of nutritional care.

Responsibility for finance, equipment and other resources

• The post carries no budgetary or managerial responsibility.
• To take anthropometric measurements to assess nutritional status, including the use of scales, stadiometer, hand grip dynamometer and body composition analyser during clinics as required.

Responsibility for supervision, leadership and management

• To be responsible for own continued professional development and be proactive within supervision sessions, monthy 1 to 1s with supervisor and annual Achievement Reviews.
• To work within the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and the BDA (British Dietetic Association) Code of Professional Conduct.
• To support other members of the direct team and wider Dietetics department, providing cross cover as required.
• To provide clinical supervision of student dietitians and support staff.

Information technology and administrative duties

• To accurately record own Dietetic daily activity using computerised statistics and to collate this data for the Team Lead for service evaluation and development purposes.
• To have good information technology skills in order to prepare own presentations, reports and documents and to communicate virtually with patients and other HCPs using platforms including Microsoft Teams and Attend Anywhere videoconsultation.
• Maintain clinical records including Dietetic records and GP letters.
• To communicate via email, social media and other virtual platforms as required.

Responsbility for research and development

• To maintain and improve professional knowledge through literature, attendance at courses/conferences as agreed with the Team and the wider dietetic department
• To liaise with other specialist dietitians within the South West region and nationally
• To identify areas of service improvement and development, with support from acute team dietitians and team lead. For example, audit and research project work, quality improvement projects
• Produce reports/summaries to monitor, evaluate and provide feedback about the service, with support from acute team dietitians and team lead.