Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication and working relationships

To communicate and establish working relationships with:

• Patients and carers
• Acute and Community dietetics team including Team Lead and Head of Nutrition and Dietetics
• Dietetic support workers and admin support teams
• Other acute and secondary care specialist dietetic teams
• Medical and nursing ward and community staff
• Pharmacy
• Catering department
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Other Allied Health Professionals
• Other health and social care professionals across the ICO in primary and secondary care

Analytical and Judgement

• To deliver evidence based Dietetic care to a caseload of adult patients including stroke.  The main focus will be on malnutrition and nutritional support.
• To contribute to MDT discussions about medically, socially and ethically challenging patients with support and supervision from the Band 6 Dietitians (for example, to support decision making with feeding plans, patients lacking mental capacity, end of life care, best interest meetings, safeguarding and PEG assessments).

       Planning and organisation

• To manage own clinical caseload as an autonomous practitioner as part of the community clinical team. 
• To manage own time, prioritise clinical referrals and manage the demands received from different parts of the service.
• To collate evidence to evaluate this post with support from other members of the team. For example, identifying the strengths of service provision, health outcomes and patient satisfaction
• To plan, organise, deliver and evaluate training sessions to a variety of groups including ward staff, other health and social care professionals. Training may be face to face or using Microsoft Teams e.g. MUST training

Physical Skills

• To take anthropometric measurements to assess nutritional status, including the use of scales, stadiometer, hand grip dynamometer and mid upper arm circumference as required.
• To drive between hospitals and community locations.

Patient and Client Care

• To undertake nutritional assessments and formulate patient centred dietetic care plans with the patient and carers.  This includes calculation of nutritional requirements; interpret biochemistry results and assessing the efficacy, safety and routes of nutritional support.
• Use behaviour change and advanced communication techniques where useful.
• To provide high quality, complex nutritional and dietetic advice enabling patients to make informed choices about their own health
• To maintain accurate and timely documentation of patient interactions and clinical care provided.
• To commence tube feeding or safe transition from artificial tube feeding to oral nutrition where clinical condition indicates, liaising with other members of the multidisciplinary team as necessary
• To design tailored enteral feeding regimes using artificial feeds, for patients requiring naso-gastric, gastrostomy or jejunostomy feeding
• To support patients who are being discharged from hospital with home enteral feeding (HEF) in place, including liaison and handover to HEF Dietitians
• To be aware of, identify and raise safeguarding issues observed during clinical practice

Policy and Service Development

• To work together with community dietitians team and the wider Dietetic team to deliver a quality, evidence-based service.
• To provide resources such as patient information leaflets, feed regimes, recipes and menu plans.
• To contribute to the wider service development of the Dietetic Team.
• To follow Trust Policies and Procedures.
• To undertake clinical practice in line with local policy and guidelines, including nutrition screening policies and using oral nutritional supplements in line with the local Formulary.
• To promote the role and value of the Dietitian in all aspects of nutritional care.

Finance, equipment and other resources

• The post carries no budgetary or managerial responsibility.
• To promote the clinical and cost-effective use of oral nutritional supplements in primary care

People Management and Training

• To be responsible for own continued professional development and be proactive within supervision sessions, monthly 1 to 1s with supervisor and annual Achievement Reviews.
• To work within the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and the BDA (British Dietetic Association) Code of Professional Conduct.
• To support other members of the direct team and wider Dietetics department, providing cross cover as required.
• To provide clinical supervision of student dietitians and support staff.
• To actively support own wellbeing, as well as to support the wellbeing of the other members of the team

Information technology and administrative duties

• To accurately record own Dietetic daily activity using computerised statistics and to collate this data for the Team Lead for service evaluation and development purposes.
• To have good information technology skills in order to prepare own presentations, reports and documents and to communicate virtually with patients and other HCPs using platforms including Microsoft Teams and Attend Anywhere video consultation.
• Maintain clinical records including Dietetic records and GP letters.
• To communicate via email, social media and other virtual platforms as required.

Research and Development

• To maintain and improve professional knowledge through literature, attendance at courses/conferences as agreed with the Team and the wider dietetic department
• To liaise with other specialist dietitians within the South West region and nationally
• To identify areas of service improvement and development, with support from dietetic team and team lead.  For example, audit and research project work, quality improvement projects.
• Attend multi-disciplinary meetings with support from Band 6 Dietitians.
• Produce reports/summaries to monitor, evaluate and provide feedback about the service, with support from acute team dietitians and team lead.

Freedom to Act

• The postholder will plan, manage, and prioritise, their own clinical caseload as an autonomous practitioner.
• They will be guided by clearly defined professional guidelines within a code of practice defined by the HCPC.
• Understand the dietetic team objectives and contribute to their achievement
• Take responsibility for own health, safety and security and promote the health, safety and security of the wider team
• Promote a blame free culture in reporting incidents and where appropriate
• support local investigation of incidents
• Take responsibility for own personal professional development
• Work as part of the wider dietetic team and contribute to the ongoing development of the department