Acute Dietitian | Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

The Nutrition and Dietetic Service at Lister Hospital have an exciting opportunity for a dietitian to join their acute team. Within this role, you will be providing dietetic care for the inpatient service in areas such as care of the elderly, surgical, oncology and general medicine as well as outpatient clinics within East and North Hertfordshire. Additionally you will input into group education sessions such as the gestational diabetes programme. As a member of this friendly and dedicated team, you will gain varied experience across inpatient and outpatient settings, develop strong links with health and social care professionals and will act as a valuable resource for both patients and professionals. This post joins a larger team of Dietitians working across Hertfordshire within a number of specialties including paediatrics, neurology and home enteral feeding. We also work in collaboration with a number of other Trusts and stakeholders providing aspects of dietetic care to patients within Hertfordshire. You will be well supported and continuing professional development is encouraged through appraisal, mentoring and training. There will be opportunity to partake in shadowing specialties such as critical care and oncology. You will be supported in your position as a student educator for University of Hertfordshire student dietitians. The service is supported by a team of administrators as well as dietetic assistants and there are IT facilities to enable mobile working. The successful candidate will:

• hold a clinical inpatient caseload as well as responsibility for designated outpatient clinics
• input to gestational diabetes education sessions on regular basis
• undertake comprehensive nutritional assessments of patients, making clinical judgements on a range of complex dietetic problems resulting in individualised management and treatment plans
• use real-food (food based) approach and where indicated, provide appropriate advice around nutritional supplementation
• liaise with other healthcare professionals such as speech and language therapy, nursing, medical teams as well as others such as catering
• undertake service development opportunities such as reviewing and creating patient literature and nutrition resources, audit and contribute to clinical governance meetings
• undertake professional and educational activities to develop knowledge and ensure maintenance of professional / clinical standards
• provide supervision, feedback and training to student dietitians
A big thank you for considering joining us at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. You'll find it a great place to work with many benefits offered to you as a member of our staff. We put our patients, their families and carers at the centre of our vision - Outstanding Services and Healthier Communities. Our staff are proud to be Innovative, Caring and Agile in their work to help achieve the Trust vision.,
• To organise a daily clinical caseload and base practice on clinical priorities / referral criteria, standards and protocols.
• To be responsible for designated outpatient clinics for patients who have complex medical conditions.
• To undertake comprehensive nutritional assessments of patients and make clinical judgements on a range of complex dietetic problems.
• To formulate individualised management and treatment plans autonomously, using clinical reasoning
• To monitor the patient's progress using a variety of sources including nutritional assessment, biochemistry, weight and food record charts and to use these to review and alter treatment as appropriate.
• To assess drug treatment plans and amend dietary intervention as appropriate.
• To acknowledge possible communication barriers and to tailor dietetic advice and supporting information to the patient / client's needs.
• To assess capacity, gain valid informed consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• To always use a 'real food' approach and where this is not successful, advise on the use of prescribed and specialist food products complying with ICB policies.
• To communicate effectively with health professionals and other relevant staff (e.g. catering, pharmacy, medical teams, and nurses) regarding the dietetic management of patients.
• To be responsible for the discharge planning of those patients with ongoing specialist dietary needs including those requiring home enteral feeding.
• To undertake professional and educational activities to develop knowledge and ensure maintenance of professional / clinical standards. These could include external courses, internet based research, membership to professional groups and clinical update sessions.
• To take part in the annual appraisal process and develop a personal development plan
• To be legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of professional practice, adhering to guidelines set out in the Health and Care Professions Council.
• To comply with the organisational and departmental policies and procedures.
• To participate in the training of student dietitians and to provide supervision and feedback.
• To assist in the induction of new staff members.
• To plan and undertake the teaching of healthcare professionals and care staff, which could involve the use of PowerPoint and other visual aids.
• To maintain accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date documentation in line with national and local record keeping standards and to communicate assessment and treatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of letters and reports.
• To be competent in the use of information technology, including the use of nutritional software to assist with the completion of nutritional assessments.
• Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment (VCOD) for Healthcare Workers - Candidates offered a role with Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, who are aged 18 and over and who will have direct, face to face contact with service users as part of their role will be required to evidence that they have received a complete course of an approved COVID-19 vaccine, subject to limited exceptions. This will include front-line workers, as well as non-clinical workers not directly involved in patient care but who nevertheless may have direct, face to-face contact with patients, such as receptionists and ward clerks.
  
  Disability Confident
About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.