Rotational Band 5 Dietitian

Job overview

King’s College Hospital  King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching hospitals with a turnover of £1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 11,500 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local  hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in Bromley.

Job Summary  This rotational Band 5 Dietitian post will be responsible for the safe delivery of dietetic care to acute wards under the Band 5 caseload at King’s College Hospital. This post consists of three Band 5 rotations between Medicine, Surgery and the Health and Ageing unit (HAU),  each lasting 6 months. Rotations are all based at the Denmark Hill site within the Acute Adult dietetic team.

The successful candidate will work as part of a wider team which provides excellent dietetic care to both in- and out-patients. The post holder will be responsible for a varied caseload that may include respiratory medicine, cardiology, liver, trauma and ITU step downs.  The post holder is an educator to patients, medics, nursing staff, dietetic assistants and other staff when required.

Main duties of the job

For further information, please see the attached trust job description and person specification for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of work in compliance with the ethical code of practice set out by the Health and Care Professions Council.
• Formulate and deliver individual dietetic treatment plans for patients based on a sound knowledge of evidence based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of a wide range of dietetic treatments.
• Assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• Evaluate patient progress, reassess and alter treatment regimens as required.
• To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload with the support of more senior staff.
• Work within Trust clinical guidelines and to have good working knowledge of national and local standards and monitor quality of practice as appropriate.
• To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient treatment records in line with British Dietetic Association (BDA) and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards of practice.

Team working and communication

• Represent the dietetic service and/or individual patients at multi-disciplinary team meetings, to ensure the delivery of a co-ordinated multidisciplinary service, and integrate dietetic therapy into the treatment programme. This will include discussion of patient care, patient progress and involvement in discharge planning.
• Use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients. Use persuasive and empathetic communication skills to motivate patients so enabling them to progress rehabilitation and treatment programmes. This will include patients who may have difficulties in understanding and/or communicating.
• To provide expert nutritional advice to patients, carers and clinicians regarding provision of nutritional support for patients based on clinical evidence. This requires detailed nutritional assessment; to include the calculation of nutritional requirements based on the interpretation of biochemistry, anthropometrics and clinical condition.
• To take delegated responsibility from more senior staff for managing patients with particular conditions and be responsible for providing dietetic assessment and treatment plans for patients with these conditions within each rotation.
• To be responsible for the discharge planning of patients going home on artificial nutritional support.
• Liaise with the Catering department to promote optimal nutrition for patients.
• To demonstrate flexibility in providing cover in times of staff shortage within the rotational areas with senior support.
• To undertake any other duties appropriate to the grade as requested by the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Audit and research

• Undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidence based practice projects, audit and outcome measures either individually or with more senior dietitians.
• To undertake as directed the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects. To manage and undertake research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery using a range of research methodologies as part of MDT audit and departmental research initiatives.

Development activities

• Be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at, and participation in, in-service training programmes, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses and peer review.
• To complete a service improvement project during each rotation with senior support
• To be an active team member of the dietetic department at King’s participating in departmental developments and attending monthly staff and continuing professional development meetings.
• To assist the Head of Nutrition & Dietetics in ensuring that department resources are used to best effect and in appropriate aspects of budget management.

Education and Training

• Maintain and develop current knowledge of evidenced-based practice in the each area, developing specialist knowledge of particular conditions and patient groups.
• To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities, and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
• To be responsible for teaching student dietitians to graduate level on dietetic practice, including skills and knowledge within core clinical areas.
• To supervise student dietitians record keeping according to professional and dietetic service standards.
• To develop resources to support the delivery of high quality care, including diet sheets, posters and presentations as required