Community Paediatric Dietitian

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 7 Community Paediatric Dietitian to join Ealing Community Dietetics within Central North West London NHS Trust, working with Ealing Community Partners.

This is a full-time permanent post.

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Main duties of the job

JOB SUMMARY

To provide and develop the community Paediatric Nutrition and Dietetic Service in the borough of Ealing, West London

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• To provide and develop specialist clinics and domiciliary visits within agreed localities where you will assess, diagnose nutritional problems, manage and treat children with medical conditions requiring nutritional management. This may involve organising provision of enteral feeds and equipment
• To work collaboratively within the multi-disciplinary teams within secondary care, primary care and local authority settings and act as source of expertise
• To develop and provide nutrition education and training to professionals within Ealing and student dietitians
• To clinically supervise and develop the band 6 paediatric dietitian.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Duties:

• Clinical

1.1. To work autonomously as a highly skilled band 7 independent practitioner to provide specialist/expert dietary advice to patients with a wide range of medical conditions and to carers, parents, clinicians and other professionals. Or work towards this if in the developmental band 6 role.

1.2. To work as an integral member of the multidisciplinary teams (including, community paediatricians, community paediatric health care professionals, local authority personnel) to provide a flexible, prioritised service based on clinical need within community settings. Community paediatric clinics will be provided in health centres, a domiciliary service to patient’s homes, day centres, schools and nurseries and other venues in Ealing.

1.3.. To advise patients, families and carers on appropriate dietary intervention using a range of developed communication and teaching skills to ensure understanding and promote the effective management of their condition.

1.5. To undertake a comprehensive assessment of a child’s condition including anthropometric measurements, understanding drug treatments and interpreting other clinical test results including biochemistry results, with relevance to the dietary intervention(s) required. To diagnose nutritional problems

1.6. To plan and deliver individualised nutritional care plans based on the comprehensive assessment of the child’s needs. Where appropriate, liaising with other health professionals to advise on changes and treatment / medication or requests of further investigations. To ensure you organise nutritional supplements you are responsible for or recommend nutritional supplements for prescription by doctors.

1.7. To evaluate outcomes of dietetic intervention through the monitoring and review of nutritional care plans and adjust care plans to facilitate achievement of goals.

1.8. To use current evidence and best practice to recommend and implement alternative approaches to dietetic intervention for the management of children in your care.

1.9. To participate in clinical risk assessment, clinical audit and research activities for the purpose of ensuring clinical effectiveness, measuring positive health care outcomes and the promotion of a quality service provided to children.

1.10. To communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with

patients /carers/extended families from a wide range of backgrounds, to gain consent, ensure understanding of condition treatment options, risks, acceptance and compliance with dietary treatment which may include unwelcome or difficult to accept information e.g. children on lifelong synthetic diets or terminally ill

1.11. To apply highly developed communication and interpersonal skills to facilitate change taking into account emotional, physical, social and

Psychological barriers e.g. behavioural problems, resistant parental

attitudes. To effectively use interpreters, sign language, Information

Technology or other means of communication appropriate to the

client’s requirements

• To be or work towards being an expert source of advice for patients/carers, nursing and other staff on home enteral tube feeding including feeding plans and prescription/provision of appropriate feed and equipment, care of tubes, complications and problem solving. This will include organising new and modifying existing feeding packages for patients, advising/liaising with paediatric home nursing team, nurses, health visitors, hospital staff, social services, feed companies, pharmacists, General Practitioners and speech and language therapists.
• To promote and ensure multi-disciplinary/multi-agency collaborative

working to promote continuity of care. To initiate multi-disciplinary joint

domiciliary visits where possible, attend multi-disciplinary team meetings

e.g. child development team, diabetes team and case conferences. To

provide timely and informative patient progress reports/discharge

summaries to secondary, primary care and local authority/social

services. To refer to other health professionals/social services when

appropriate

• To collect agreed statistical information in accordance with Trust and

Dietetic Team standards.

2 Teaching/Nutrition Education

• To identify and assess community health professional nutritional training

needs, plan and deliver at all levels to professionals in Ealing e.g. health

visitors, nurses, medical staff, Allied Health Professionals. This could

include formal training e.g. presentations to large groups as well as

informal e.g. health professional shadowing you at clinics

• To provide the training, supervision and assessment of undergraduate and post-graduate student dietitians as part of the dietetic placement training.In addition, to provide support and training when appropriate for student nurses and other student allied health professionals and student doctors.
• To participate in the training, orientation and induction of new members of staff and peer support of other paediatric colleagues.
• To clinically supervise and professionally develop the junior paediatric team and assistant in paediatrics.
• Clinical governance
• To measure and evaluate your own work to ensure evidence based

practice and reflective learning. To identify areas to participate in dietetic

and multidisciplinary research and audit to support the development of

evidence based practice,

• To work in collaboration with the multidisciplinary and dietetic teams to

develop, implement and evaluate local evidence based guidelines,

protocols and care pathways within the specialities of paediatric

community services to help ensure patients receive high

quality dietetic care & management

• To develop and review evidence based written information material and

resources for patients and carers to support dietetic intervention. To

ensure information material meets the needs of different social, ethnic and

client needs, i.e. people with learning disabilities

• To contribute to the implementation of national and local strategies and

Initiatives.

• To be responsible for equipment in your care e.g. scales, tape measures,

Callipers, mobile phones, laptops

• To be responsible for allocating and checking clerical work you give to the

administrative support of the department and clinical work to the assistants

• Professional
• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work,

including the management of children in your care, keeping accurate

patient records in accordance with the Health Care Professions Council

guidance and recording appropriate activity data in

accordance with the Trust’s and Dietetic Service Policies and Procedures.

• To be responsible for own continuous professional and personal

development, including the participation in clinical supervision, the appraisal

scheme and maintaining an up to date professional portfolio in line with

national legislation by the Health Care Professions Council.

• To work in accordance with the dietetic service and the Trust’s policies and procedures. To abide by safeguarding principles and procedures and child

protection policies

• To maintain highly specialist knowledge and clinical expertise through the

attendance of relevant study days, courses, conferences, departmental

meetings, journal club and clinical update meetings.

• To develop and maintain skills required to practice at an advanced level,

within the area of home enteral tube feeding/paediatrics.

• To and act in accordance with the Code of Professional Conduct of the Health Care Professionals Council
• To work under minimal supervision but have access to regular one to one practice and clinical supervision and safeguarding supervision
• To attend Mandatory in service training
• To be an active member of the Ealing Paediatric groups and forums across the Trust and nationally
• To work in isolation and conduct domiciliary visits. To carry mobile phones in accordance with the lone workers policy
• To be responsible for managing time effectively, planning, prioritising and
• rganising your own workload, balancing patient related and other

professional demands, pressures and deadlines. To arrange for cover for

personal planned absence in agreement with the Head of Nutrition and

Dietetics

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.