HealthJobsUK

Detailed job description and main 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, patient’s 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

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 (including anthropometrical measurement) utilising clinical information available from other sources and requesting additional clinical tests as appropriate.
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 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.
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 who may be highly distressed or confused 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. 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
8. To monitor and adjust individual treatment plans on an on-going basis as required.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Provide specialist dietetic advice to others regarding the management and care of patients.

12       To prepare and deliver group education sessions for patients.

13. To use relevant clinical outcome measures to demonstrate efficacy of intervention.
14. 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.