Specialist Dietitian - Stroke and Complex Feeding

at  Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Are you an enthusiastic, motivated dietitian looking to progress your career in a supportive, learning environment?
We have a full time band 7 acute Stroke and Complex feeding specialist adult dietitian vacancy at the University Lewisham Hospital (UHL), part of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, that could be perfect for you.
You would be joining our team of 12 adult dietitians within our diverse department of 60 dietitians, nutrition nurse specialists, speech and language therapists, dietitian support workers and team administrators who work across our hospital and community services.
We welcome applications from dietitians working at band 6 who want to progress to band 7 or those who are already working as a band 7 and are looking for a new challenge. We will consider candidates with little or no stroke experience; we will offer full support and training to help you develop and flourish in this role.
If you’re curious and want to explore this opportunity further, we strongly encourage you to get in touch so we can give you more information.
The post holder will work alongside our acute adult dietetic team at UHL providing a specialist stoke dietetic service and work closely with a supportive MDT. In addition, you will be a key member of the complex feeding MDT to jointly assess and support complex patients for enteral tube feeding.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

• Contribute to the training of pre-registration dietetic students on clinical placement by:
• Participating in the development and revision of the training programme
• Acting as a role model, leading clinical supervision within designated specialist are
• Undertaking, tutorials, feedback and assessment
• Plan, deliver and evaluate formal and informal training within specialism to audiences of other health care professionals, staff and patients, including internal and external study days.
• Provide training within specialism to dietetic colleagues both within and outside the Trust.
• Develop educational resources, which are evidence based and acceptable to patients and carers.

RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

Working on the 2 stoke wards and with the Stoke MDTs
Dietetic lead for the complex feeding MDT

To participate in team and departmental meetings as well as CPD

• To participate in audit and service development within own clinical area and contribute to the nutrition and dietetic service as a whole through participation in service development.
• To be actively involved in training students from London universities on the 1,2,3 placement programme.
• To provide supervision/line management to band3/5/6 team members
• To lead on training in enteral feeding and nutrition support for nursing and medical staff.

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
Improving the experience of staff with disability
Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
Making equalities mainstream.

CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Act as an independent advanced practitioner and be professionally and legally accountable and take responsibility for all aspects of own highly specialist clinical caseload.
• Work independently to undertake nutritional assessments and calculate nutritional requirements of patients with complex conditions using anthropometry.
• Communicate evidence based nutritional and dietary advice in an understandable form.
• Use highly developed communication and counselling skills such as reflective listening, open questioning, empathy, explanation and reassurance to communicate dietary intervention to patients and carers.
• Gain valid consent to treatment and negotiate change with patients by breaking down barriers, using motivational skills, to enable them to achieve dietary targets set.
• Devise, monitor and review nutritional care plans against outcome measures taking into account social, psychological, cognitive, behavioural and cultural needs, as well as taking into account the needs of the carer and adjust care plan to facilitate achievement of goals.
• Actively participate in multidisciplinary team meetings.
• Ensure safe and timely transfer of patients by liaising with appropriate internal and external agencies.
• Provide dietetic cover to other areas during periods of annual leave/sick leave.
• Accurately record all assessments and interventions in medical notes, nursing documentation and electronic patient record system in line with Trust policy.
• Facilitate discharge of patients with complex needs by liaising with hospital staff, external agencies and multidisciplinary teams about the nutritional management of patients discharged into and their continued diet therapy within the community.