Neonatal dietitian

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Dietitian with experience in neonates to join the team. This post will work alongside multidisciplinary team in the Neonatal unit to provide an expert dietetic service to the Newborn care unit at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

The post holder should have a broad range of clinical knowledge and skills within neonates and the critical care setting.

Main duties of the job

• Primary role of leading dietetic input for the neonatal unit (neonatal Intensive Care Unit, high dependency and low dependent unit)
• Provide expert nutritional support for children with a wide range of clinical conditions working with MDTs and external agencies as needed.
• To stay up to date with the evolving evidence base within critical care, linking in with specialist groups and adapting services to meet emergent understanding.
• Engage with service evaluation, benchmarking, data collection to develop the service and business cases. To work collaboratively with the ODN to deliver key objectives from Ockenden funding. To provide cross cover for essential referrals on Paediatric critical care when the usual dietitian is on leave. To work as part of the Band 7 Paediatric Dietetic team to support senior leadership tasks for the dietetic service

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Provision of nutritional support to patients on neonatal ITU, HDU and LDU advising the Neonatal and Surgical Specialist Teams on the nutritional and dietetic requirements of preterm infants based on clinical, nutritional, anthropometrical and biochemical assessment.

To regularly review a caseload of pre-identified patients assessing growth parameters, nutritional requirements, intakes and accumulated deficits with practical and achievable plans that meet the clinical needs of the child.

To work with the Infant feeding team to promote the establishment of breast feeding within the preterm population.

To work closely with the Neonatal Speech and Language Therapy teams to ensure safe and effective feeding routes that meet the growth and nutrition of the patient.

To communicate, empower and support parents and caregivers with up-to-date plans and recommendations around feeding, considering parental preferences, cultural and religious beliefs.

To liaise with colleagues, local dietitians and other hospitals for pre-term infants transferring to local care.

To be an active part of the Paediatric dietetic team, providing clinical cover and supervision when needed to meet the needs of both the senior team, junior team, and service users.

Sound knowledge of feeds, formulas and special diet products and use of EDM 3000 for feed recipes including local neonatal milk kitchen operational guidance. Awareness of the donor milk traffic light and governance systems.

To have a strong foundation in nutritional support to include enteral feeding (including home enteral feeding in line with OUH policies).

To consider local prescribing guidelines and feed budgets when considering feed or formula choices and onward prescriptions.