Dietitian

Job overview

We are seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated dietitian to join our acute adult dietetic team as a Band 5 Dietitian.

The Nutrition and Dietetics Department at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust comprises four teams based at Lewisham Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Lewisham Community Home Enteral Nutrition and SEND teams. Our friendly team consists of over 50 professionals, including dietitians, dietetic assistants, nutrition specialist nurses, and administrators. This position provides an ideal environment to expand your clinical knowledge and develop new skills.

We are looking for a team player with excellent communication skills who is flexible, supportive, and committed to delivering high-quality patient care.

In this post, you will have the opportunity to provide a proactive and coordinated nutrition and dietetic service for adult patients.   The post allows you to gain experience in acute medical (including respiratory, endocrine, gastroenterology, oncology and elderly care) and surgical wards (including upper and lower gastrointestinal, ear, nose and throat and orthopaedic surgery) and cover a general dietetic clinic.

You will also contribute to shaping the dietitian’s role within the multi-professional team, working closely with Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Physiotherapists.

Main duties of the job

• Under the direction and guidance of the Specialist Dietitian, assess and monitor patients, offering nutritional support and dietary education both in the inpatient and outpatient setting.
• Provide nutritional and dietetic advice to medical, nursing and catering staff and other healthcare professionals.
• Contribute to the nutrition and dietetic service as a whole through participation in service development.
• Actively involved in training students from the London universities.
• Participate in audits, service evaluations, and continuous professional development by attendance at study days.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical responsibilities:

• Act as an independent practitioner and be professionally and legally accountable and responsible for all aspects of own work including a clinical caseload.
• Work independently to undertake nutritional assessments and calculate nutritional requirements of patients using anthropometry and taking into account medical, social and cultural factors.
• Communicate evidence based nutritional and dietary advice in an understandable form.
• Use communication and counselling skills such as reflective listening, open questioning, empathy, explanation and reassurance to communicate dietary intervention to patients and their carers.
• Gain valid consent to treatment and negotiate change with patients by breaking down barriers, using motivational skills, to enable them to achieve dietary targets set.
• Monitor and review nutritional care plans against outcome measures and adjust care plan to facilitate achievement of goals.
• Undertake designated outpatient clinics.
• Consult with peers when dealing with new or unfamiliar clinical specialities.
• Participate in multidisciplinary team meetings, as appropriate.
• Ensure safe and timely discharge of patients on enteral tube feeding by liaising with appropriate internal and external agencies.
• Provide dietetic cover to other wards during periods of annual leave/sick leave within clinical capability.
• Accurately record all assessment and interventions in medical notes in line with Trust policy.
• Communicate with other agencies about ongoing patient care after discharge.

Managerial and administration:

• Decide daily on priorities for own work area balancing patient related and professional demands.
• Contribute to working parties and departmental meetings.
• Complete allocated projects and meet deadlines.
• Record patient activity data.
• Support the dietetic assistant.
• Share the responsibility for maintaining departmental resource files.

Education and training:

• Assist in delivering formal and informal training to other health care professionals and staff groups.
• Plan, deliver and evaluate defined patient group, teaching sessions e.g. cardiac rehabilitation.
• Contribute to the development of educational resources, which are evidence based and acceptable to patients and carers.

Clinical governance:

• Work within the Health & Care Professions Council’s Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and Standards of Proficiency.
• Attend trust induction training and mandatory training programmes.
• Identify personal training needs through participation in regular continuous professional development activities and individual performance review.
• Develop skills by attending relevant training courses and conferences.
• Maintain a personal portfolio as evidence of competence to practice.
• Undertake defined audit projects as part of clinical practice with support.
• Contribute to the development of departmental and evidence based treatment policies, guidelines, standards and protocols.