Specialist Community Dietitian- Surrey Downs H&C

at  Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

APPLICANT REQUIREMENTS

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

MAIN DUTIES OF THE JOB

• Specialist Dietetic Input: Provide specialist dietetic input to patients in the community with long-term conditions, including but not limited to obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease.
• High-Quality Nutrition and Dietetic Service: Deliver a specialist and high-quality nutrition and dietetic service to support patients requiring nutritional advice (both oral and enteral) in the community.
• Community Hospitals: Provide specialist dietetic services to local community hospitals.
• Malnutrition Risk Reduction: Reduce the risk of malnutrition by upskilling health and social care professionals on diet and appropriate nutritional care plans in community settings.
• Collaborative Work: Collaborate with the Prescribing Support Dietitian to ensure the appropriate and cost-effective use of Oral Nutritional Supplements (ONS) in the community.
• Service Delivery: Work alongside all members of the dietetic department to ensure the delivery of a high-quality service that meets professional standards and fulfils clinical governance requirements.
• Policy and Guidelines Contribution: Contribute to the development and implementation of evidence-based policies, guidelines, and procedures for managing this client group.
• NICE Guidance and Local Care Pathways: Support the implementation of NICE guidance and local care pathways.
• Caseload Management: Manage your own caseload, time, and meetings effectively to meet daily deadlines.

DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTION AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Clinical Caseload Maintenance: Maintain a clinical caseload and collaborate with other health professionals, suppliers, patients, and carers to provide timely, appropriate, and cost-effective nutrition support for patients on oral nutritional supplements in all community settings.
• Comprehensive Patient Assessment: Undertake comprehensive assessments of patients’ clinical needs using specialised clinical knowledge, skills, and a broad range of nutritional assessment techniques.
• Timely Documentation: Ensure all consultation notes are completed within 24 hours of patient and/or third-party contact in accordance with the code of conduct and Trust policies.
• Dietary Goal Negotiation: Negotiate and agree on dietary or nutritional goals with individual patients and/or their carers using motivational interviewing, counselling, and cognitive behaviour therapy tools. Identify individual barriers to change and help patients manage them.
• Annual Audit Participation: Actively participate in the department’s annual audit program.
• Service Provision Reporting: Provide regular reports on service provision and proactively discuss future service development initiatives with your line manager.
• Professional Contribution: Contribute to dietetic staff meetings, clinical effectiveness activities, journal reviews, peer reviews, team meetings, supervision, and working groups.
• Flexible Service Delivery: Ensure flexible service delivery, including providing cover for other clinical areas or colleagues within the department as needed.
• Continuous Learning: Stay abreast of current literature and share learning with colleagues.
• Risk and Assessment Management: Ensure appropriate risk and other assessments are completed and documented by yourself and team members in a timely manner, in accordance with Trust policies.