Senior Specialist Dietitian

Job overview

Lead front-door dietetics where clinical decisions matter most!

We’re looking for a Senior Specialist Dietitian to take a leading role within our Front Door Services at Weston General Hospital - supporting patients at the most critical point in their hospital journey.

This is not a routine acute role. You’ll be:

• making rapid, complex clinical decisions
• influencing admission pathways and patient flow
• leading the dietetic care of patients from front door and admission wards
• shaping how dietetics is delivered at the earliest stage of care

This is a high-autonomy, high-impact role combining clinical expertise, leadership, and service development.

Who is this role for?

Senior Dietitians looking for:

• greater clinical autonomy
• the chance to lead and influence pathways
• a role where your decisions directly impact patient outcomes at pace

We welcome strong Band 6 applicants who have had leadership responsibilities plus experience in managing complex caseloads & service improvement or project work.

For an informal chat, please contact: [email protected]

Main duties of the job

What you’ll be doing:

• Managing a complex front-door caseload with rapid clinical decision-making
• Identifying & treating nutritional risk early, supporting patient flow & admission avoidance
• Working closely with frailty teams, consultants, & MDTs
• Leading development of the front door dietetic pathway
• Line managing & supporting junior staff
• Contributing to audit, service improvement, & training

What makes this role different?

As the lead dietitian across ED, assessment units, & admissions, you will:

• take ownership of a fast-paced, high-impact caseload
• influence decisions at the point of admission
• support admission avoidance through early intervention
• act as the clinical expert in complex nutrition support (including enteral feeding)
• shape & develop a growing front door service

Leadership & impact

You’ll play a key leadership role within the team, including:

• Line management & supervision of junior staff
• Supporting student training and workforce development
• Leading audit, service improvement, & pathway redesign
• Developing guidelines, protocols, and resource

Why Weston General Hospital?

Weston offers something different compared to larger centres:

• Greater autonomy – your voice is heard and your decisions shape services
• Closer MDT working – genuine collaboration across teams
• Real opportunity to influence and innovate within a developing front door model

All of this in a coastal location, with easy access to Bristol and Bath - giving you both lifestyle & career opportunity.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Senior Specialist Dietitian provides a highly specialist clinical service for patients who present at our front door i.e. Emergency Department, assessment units and admission wards.

The Senior Specialist Dietitian will lead the Front Door Pathway providing direction for peers & colleagues.

The role will support the early identification of those patients at nutritional risk by promoting risk screening.

To guide early implementation of therapeutic dietary plans for patients with long term conditions or specialist pathways in liaison with lead specialist dietitians.

To support admission avoidance by providing timely dietary interventions, sign posting to relevant community services.

The Senior Specialist Dietitian contributes to all relevant activities involved in pathway delivery e.g. ward rounds, meetings, audit, and research.

The Senior Specialist Dietitian will provide a comprehensive specialised service, which includes relevant education and/or training to all healthcare professionals, carers and other workers.

The Senior Specialist Dietitian will be committed to the maintenance of personal specialist expertise, which is current, relevant, and accessible.

The post holder will also provide clinical cover for other senior specialist dietitians’ duties in their absence.

See Job description for full details