Job summary
Community Specialist Dietitian - 37.5 hours per week (1.0 WTE)
Contract Fixed Term (12 months maternity cover)
We are looking for an enthusiastic dietitian to join our team of innovative community dietitians' dedicated adult dietetics. The role involves providing a community dietetic service in the primary care setting and care homes for all areas of dietetics including diabetes, obesity management, hyperlipidaemia and oral nutritional support. The post holder will deliver care primarily through clinics face to face and by telephone and home visits and will provide support to GP's and health professionals.
The post holder will manage their own adult caseload and will be working with the community dietetic Team providing a high quality dietetic service to patients and carers' in this specialist area of dietetics.
There will be opportunities to support student dietitians.
Good communication and teaching skills are essential and the post holder must be able to prioritise tasks, manage your time effectively and be able to work flexibly within the team.
the post holder will be encouraged to build on your knowledge and skills through CPD.
The successful candidate will work closely with our friendly and supportive team consisting with specialist leads in primary care, care homes and HEF.
Main duties of the job
Clinical
1. To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work and that work delegated to support staff.
2. To undertake a comprehensive assessment of patients using a high level of clinical reasoning and assessment techniques
3. To utilise an extensive knowledge of evidence based practice and treatment options to select and deliver specialised dietetic packages of care
4. To utilise high level counselling and interpersonal skills with patients
5. To ensure that patients and carers are involved in the planning of their care packages, using negotiation skills as appropriate and providing support to patients in relation to their dietary care plan
6. To assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
7. To monitor and adjust individual treatment plans on an on-going basis as required
8. To be responsible for maintaining accurate comprehensive patient treatment records in line with the British Dietetic Association /HPC standards of practice, ECS dietetics and The NorthMid policies and to communicate assessment and treatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports and letters.
9. Provide specialist dietetic advice to others regarding the management and care of patients.
Note: DBS checks are required for any staff that have regular contact with patients in the course of their normal duties.
About us
North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system - consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet,Enfield and Haringey. As with other ICS's, we are working increasingly closely with partners and indeed many of our financial and performance objectives are measured at this system level. Whilst all organisations remain as standalone, statutory bodies we have an ICS infrastructure for making shared decisions and agreeing shared approaches.
We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George's University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.
Take a tour of our hospital here
Job description
Job responsibilities
Job Purpose
As part of the Dietetic Service providing care to a multi cultural and diverse population, to deliver a high standard of service to adult patients in primary care services.
Key roles are:
To provide a specialist community dietetic service providing patient centred, therapy led nutrition support to adults resident in Enfield in Care Homes, patients home and clinics.
To provide a community dietetic service to patients requiring oral nutrition support at home.
To contribute to the primary care dietetic service provision in outpatient clinics and group activities
To supervise the dietetic assistants when required.
Job Statement
To perform comprehensive dietetic assessment of patients with diverse presentations and complex physical and psychological conditions.
To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner, holding the responsibility for own caseload of specialist and complex patients.
To undergo supervision and development support in the form of regular individual and team supervision sessions as part of the wider dietetic team.
To be aware of and to highlight to the line manager any clinical governance issues pertaining to the role and practice.
To contribute to the delivery of health promotion activities within the service and wider Trust initiatives
MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Specific Duties and Responsibilities
Clinical
- To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work and that work delegated to support staff.
- To undertake a comprehensive assessment of patients using a high level of clinical reasoning and assessment techniques (including anthropometrical measurement) utilising clinical information available from other sources and requesting additional clinical tests as appropriate.
- To utilise an extensive knowledge of evidence based practice and treatment options to select and deliver specialised dietetic packages of care.
- To utilise high level counselling and interpersonal skills with patients frequently hostile or ambivalent in order to deal with emotional barriers to dietary change, challenging inappropriate cognitions around food and motivating them to change their dietary habits.
- To ensure that patients and carers are involved in the planning of their care packages, using negotiation skills as appropriate and providing support to patients who may be highly distressed or confused in relation to their dietary care plan
- To assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
- Use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients and carers as well as providing personalised written information to patients and others involved in their care
- To monitor and adjust individual treatment plans on an on-going basis as required.
- To be responsible for maintaining accurate comprehensive patient treatment records in line with the British Dietetic Association /HPC standards of practice and ECS/BEHMHT policies and to communicate assessment and treatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports and letters.
- Represent dietetic service service and/or individual patients at multi-disciplinary team meetings, to ensure delivery of a co-ordinated multidisciplinary service, and integrate dietetic treatment into the treatment programme. This will include discussion of patient care, patient progress and involvement in discharge planning.
- Provide specialist dietetic advice to others regarding the management and care of patients.
12 To prepare and deliver group education sessions for patients.
- To use relevant clinical outcome measures to demonstrate efficacy of intervention.
- Apply a sound knowledge of clinical governance and risk management both to own caseload and that delegated to other staff.
This job description is intended as a basic guide to the responsibilities of the post and is not exhaustive. The post holder may be asked to undertake duties that are in line with the level of role.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- BSc Dietetics Qualification
- HCPC registration
Desirable
Experience
Essential
- 1 year experience in dietetic practice
- Experience in all areas of dietetics including obesity, diabetes, gastroenterology and nutritional support.
- Substantial experience working in NHS as a Dietitian
Desirable
- Experience of working in a community setting or as a lone worker
Skills
Essential
- Ability to keep accurate and legible patient notes. Ability to demonstrate a high level of clinical reasoning.
- Good communication skills, able to present information (written and oral) in a clear and logical manner.
- A strong commitment to patient care.
Desirable
- Able to deal with difficult situations, e.g. dealing with aggressive and/or emotional patients or carers.
Knowledge
Essential
- Awareness of own knowledge and development needs.
- Extensive knowledge base underpinning practice
Desirable
- Awareness of current professional and NHS issues
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website .
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants .
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website .
Employer details
Employer name
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust
Address
Pine Lodge, St Michael's Site
Gater Drive
Enfield
EN2 0JB