Specialist Diabetes Dietitian

Job description

Job responsibilities

• To be a member of the dietetic team responsible for the dietetic management of patients who have diabetes requiring specialist input as part of the acute or intermediate diabetes team.
• To be responsible as part of the team for providing a range of MDT specialist diabetes clinics across Guys & St Thomas and our local communities of Southwark and Lambeth. These will be a combination of face to face and virtual delivery.
• To support our band 7 in-patient diabetes dietitian and the wider Diabetes in-patient team as required. This includes managing complex enteral and parenteral feeding and insulin adjustment
• To deliver teaching and education to other HPs on diabetes in particular dietary management, this could be to other dietitians, nurses, medics and students.
• To support the MDT team in providing group education which may include DESMOND, Tier 3 (diabetes education), carbohydrate awareness groups, treatment specific groups e.g. GLP1 and possibly new group interventions such as HEAL-D (Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyles for Diabetes) and very low calorie diet groups
• To provide expert dietetic advice to the multidisciplinary team through attendance and participation in multidisciplinary team meetings.
• To initiate and participate in regular service evaluation, quality improvement and audit in line with departmental and MDT procedures.

CLINICAL

1. To lead in the provision of a specialist dietetic service within their multidisciplinary team.
2. To be responsible for the provision of the dietetic input into Multidisciplinary outpatient Clinics.
3. To be responsible for the provision of a Dietetic Outpatient Clinic.
4. To take the lead in providing expert Dietetic input into agreed medical and surgical areas for both inpatients and outpatients.
5. To devise, monitor and review nutritional care plans against outcomes measures and adjust these care plans to enable the achievement of their goals.
6. To provide expert nutritional advice to patients, carers and clinicians regarding provision of nutritional support for patients based on clinical evidence. This requires detailed nutritional assessment; to include the calculation of nutritional requirements based on the interpretation of biochemistry, anthropometry and clinical condition.
7. To ensure the safe and timely discharge of patients going home on artificial nutritional support liaising with and co-ordinating internal and external agencies.
8. To communicate and liaise with other agencies regarding nutrition related prescriptions and the nutritional management of patients within and outside the trust.
9. To be responsible for ensuring that patients and carers have consented prior to dietetic intervention in line with professional guidelines.
10. To directly prescribe nutritional, vitamin and mineral supplements.
11. To be responsible for the maintenance of adequate stock levels of feeds and supplements at ward level.
12. To be trained to trainer level in the use of enteral feeding pumps and associated equipment.
13. To be trained to trainer level in the use of anthropometric equipment for assessment of nutritional status such as bioelectrical impedance, callipers and hand grip dynamometer.
14. To provide cover for colleagues during periods of absence.

TRAINING & EDUCATION

1. To be able to utilise developed communication and teaching skills to educate the diverse and multicultural population with barriers to understanding both on a one to one basis and in groups.
2. To provide specialist Dietetic counselling to patients and relatives where training in post registration Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and use of reassurance and motivational skills are required to be used in an appropriate and sensitive manner.
3. To provide training for medical, allied health professionals, nurses, catering staff and dietetic students, as well as patients. This will take the form of lectures, tutorials and demonstrations.
4. To undertake the role of a mentor for junior members of staff.
5. To advise and liaise with catering staff concerning the dietary needs for patients under your care and to assist in instructing chefs on the preparation of therapeutic diets.
6. To participate in the training of student dietitians.
7. To maintain Continuing Professional Development and attend study days and training.

CLINICAL GOVERNANCE

1. To participate in the development, implementation and update of operational and professional standards and policies for the Dietetic Service.
2. To contribute to operational and strategic planning for the dietetic service within the trust.
3. To initiate and participate in research and audit within the area of specialism, in line with departmental research and audit procedures. This may include co-ordination and supervision of research projects for undergraduate dietetic students. It will be expected that any relevant findings should be published or presented at appropriate conferences.
4. To actively participate in the departmental evidence based group and others as appropriate
5. To be an active team member of the dietetic department at Guys and St Thomas participating in departmental developments and attending monthly staff and continuing professional development meetings.
6. To research, develop, audit and publish evidence based departmental literature for use within and outside the trust. These will be produced with the use of patient fora.
7. To participate fully in continuing professional development and appraisal through the use of portfolio based assessment in line with national frameworks.
8. To keep statistics and written records of all inpatient and outpatient contacts in accordance with trust and departmental standards for record keeping.
9. To comply with professional codes of practice, professional guidelines and departmental policies.

Person Specification

Knowledge

Essential

• BSc (Hons) Degree in Dietetics or equivalent
• Current State Registration
• Knowledge of current evidence based strategies within diet and diabetes

Skills

Essential

• good communication
• organisational skills
• Presentation skills- including talking to large groups
• time management
• Maintain confidentiality
• Working as part of a team
• Prioritise own work load
• Able to work under own initiative
• Sound Clinical knowledge
• Sound knowledge of current issues of dietetics
• Computer literacy
• Demonstrate a flexible approach
• Demonstrate understanding of equal opportunities

Desirable

• Conducting Audits and or research

Experience

Essential

• Broad post registration experience within Clinical Dietetics including T1 and T2 diabetes
• Complex nutritional support experience including those on enteral and/or parental feeding requiring insulin
• Experience of MDT working

Desirable

• Diabetes structured education accreditation
• Experience of training student dietitians

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Cross site and community

London

SE1 7EH

Employer's website

https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/careers/careers.aspx (Opens in a new tab)