Paediatric Dietitian Band 6

Job overview

Are you an enthusiastic motivated dietitian looking to extend your  knowledge in a well-respected and friendly department? Then this opportunity may be for you!

We are looking for a dietitian who is keen to innovate and work together with our acute across site team. This Band 6 vacancy will be based at Lewisham. You will join a friendly department comprised of 35 dietitians across the two sites of acute Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

We will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements.

The department has excellent secretarial and IT support.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work with our Band 7 paediatric Dietitian at UHL providing a specialist inpatient and outpatient paediatric dietetic service.

Clinical responsibilities will include:-

• 1 Paediatric Dietetic Clinic
• Working on the children’s inpatient ward supporting all new admissions

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary:

The post holder will work with our Band 7 Paediatric Dietitian at UHL providing a    specialist paediatric dietetic service for inpatients and outpatients.

Clinical responsibilities will include:-

• Working on the children’s ward, including supporting new admissions and enterally fed discharges
• Holding weekly outpatient clinics both face to face and virtual group sessions

You will support the nutritional management children referred to the service by providing specialist advice, education and support to patients, careers and other professionals both within and outside the hospital. This post is accountable to the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics

Key Result Areas & Performance:

• To provide high quality, highly complex nutritional and dietetic advice as required.

• To work as an integral part of the paediatric multi-disciplinary team, liaising with all members to advise on treatment and dietary management for children and their families/carers on a regular basis.

• To be responsible for the safe discharge of children into the community including those that might require enteral feeding.

• To develop and be involved in the production of evidence based written materials and teaching resources as required and ensure their regular review. Ensure the availability of culturally appropriate information. Use patient forums to refine materials.

• To develop, implement and audit innovative methods of delivering education and behaviour change, including working in groups

• To ensure safe practice through development of caseload management plan taking into account risk management and documentation.

• To identify and report clinical risk issues as outlined in the trust policy and when required, research and prepare reports regarding clinical risk / clinical incidents.

• To be responsible for ensuring that patients and carers have consented prior to dietetic intervention in line with professional guidelines.

• To research, develop with the use of patient forums, audit and publish evidence based departmental literature for use within and outside of the trust.

• To take responsibility for ongoing clinical excellence through evidence based practice and development of standards, policies and guidelines in conjunction with the Trust standards committee.

• To keep accurate ‘real time’ records of dietetic contacts

• To act as a specialist resource for health professionals in both statutory and voluntary sectors

Workforce

• To participate in the operational and strategic planning for the nutrition service for children within the trust.

• To assist the department in general dietetics as dictated by the needs of the service and covering for other colleagues in their absence.

• To achieve, forge and maintain links with staff working in Primary Care in nutrition support

• To attend and actively participate in BDA and non-BDA specialist interest groups meetings contributing to the strategic direction of dietitians in these specialist areas.

• To be an active team member of the department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, participating in departmental developments and projects and attending monthly staff meetings, and continuing professional development sessions.

• To participate fully in Individual Performance Development and develop a strategy for Continuing Professional Development encompassing a portfolio based assessment, in line with national legislation.

• To be competent in use of information technology, formulation of databases for research and audit purposes and competent in the use of nutritional databases for determination of nutritional adequacy.

• To work as part of the Dietetic Team, participating in service developments and attending relevant staff meetings.

• To maintain strict confidentiality of patients records in accordance with the Trust GDPR guidance and HPC Code of Practice.

• To maintain state registration and professional liability insurance to cover all working practices.

• To have an understanding of the Trust’s Health & Safety, Confidentiality, Equal Opportunities and Data Protection policies and be aware of responsibilities.

Financial

Costs need to be taken into account when advocating the use of specialist nutritional products, both for inpatients and in recommendations for community prescribing.

Responsibility also involves looking after expensive feeding and anthropometric equipment, and informing managers as regards usage of costly nutritional products.

Partnerships

Main working relationships include:

• Medical Practitioners
• Nursing Staff, Clinical Nurse Specialists, School nurses & Health Visitors
• Catering Staff
• Pharmaceutical Staff
• Speech Therapists
• Physiotherapists
• Psychologists and Clinical Chemistry
• Dietitians
• Community agencies (e.g. Home Enteral Nutrition Team, Home Care companies)

Communication involves:

• Working closely with the extended Paediatric Multidisciplinary Team both inpatient and outpatient discussing patient sensitive information

• Ability to utilise developed communication and teaching skills to educate the diverse and multicultural population with barriers to understanding the essential, highly complex artificial nutrition support and related procedures.

• Formal Presentations to colleagues and student training

• To be actively involved in the training of undergraduate and postgraduate multidisciplinary students, both within and outside of the trust. This includes active participation in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics’ training and assessment of student dietitians.

• Presentation of research and audit within the Trust and also at regional, national and international medical and dietetic meetings and conferences.

• To initiate, organise and implement training and education sessions trust-wide as appropriate, regarding new policies. To carry out training in person, or arrange external trainers.

• To produce teaching materials and patient literature for use within and outside of the Trust.