Band 6 Paediatric DietitianNHS

Job summary

Are you passionate about paediatric dietetics and looking for an opportunity to develop your specialist skills?

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated Band 6 Specialist Paediatric Dietitian to join our friendly paediatric dietetic team at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with babies, children and young people across our paediatric inpatient and outpatient services. You will manage your own caseload, including children with complex needs, working closely with families and the wider multidisciplinary team to provide high-quality, evidence based and individual nutritional care.

You will be joining service where dietitians are valued members of the paediatric MDT and where there are opportunities to develop your clinical expertise while also contributing to education, quality improvement and the continuing development of our paediatric services.

What will the role involve?

As a Band 6 paediatric dietitian you will work autonomously, while being supported by the Paediatric Team Lead Dietitian and the wider dietetic team.

You will be committed to evidence based practice and continuing professional development, and enthusiastic about contributing ideas to improve the service.

You will be joining a supportive dietetic service with opportunities to develop your paediatric knowledge and skills, and to make a real difference to the care of children and their families.

Interviews will be on 5th October

Main duties of the job

• To work as an experienced autonomous practitioner to provide a high standard of patient focused care through specialised assessment of infants and babies with enteral feeding needs, gastrointestinal conditions, nutritional deficiencies, restrictive eating/feeding difficulties or other specialist paediatric conditions.
• To plan and deliver a high-quality service to babies and children, and their families/carers.
• To participate in student training, supervision and assessment.
• To contribute to the therapy clinical governance agenda to improve the quality of the paediatric service.
• To contribute to the planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the paediatric dietetic service, working with the Paediatric Team Lead to identify and implement improvements.

Job description

Patient/client care:

To independently manage a defined caseload of paediatric inpatients and outpatients, including children with complex nutritional needs

To undertake comprehensive nutritional assessment

To asses and manage malnutrition, faltering growth and other complex nutritional problems within the post holders scope of practice

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of practice, including the management of patients receiving treatment

To function as an autonomous practitioner, working within codes of practice and professional guidelines when providing advice to patients on therapeutic diets

To use clinical judgement and work in partnership with parents with formulating care plans for home

To accept clinical responsibility for own caseload of patients and organise this effectively

To prioritise caseload of inpatients and to ensure timely dietetic intervention

To provide specialist advice individually tailored to meet the needs of the children and families in the paediatric unit

To involve parents/guardians in decision- making for their treatment

In collaboration with the Team Lead Paediatric Dietitian formulate and update parent information sheets, specific topics for use by dietitians and other healthcare professionals to ensure information is evidence based

In collaboration with Team Lead Paediatric dietitian develop and implement nutrition and dietetic guidelines in clinical areas based on current best practice

To clinically supervise junior colleagues, assistants and students on placement and to provide peer support to Band 6 colleagues

To co-ordinate a safe and effective discharge/transfer of patients from hospital; organising for equipment and feed to be delivered for those who need to continue on an enteral feed after discharge

To attend team meetings and participate in on-going development of the service

To provide and promote a quality nutrition and dietetic service within available resources

To ensure patient confidentiality is maintained at all times

To deliver staff and parent group education sessions

1. Profession specific clinical duties

To provide specialist dietetic expertise to staff and nutritional advice to patients on the paediatric unit

2. Communications

To engage with parents and MDT in treatment planning decisions

To formulate a treatment plan jointly with the patient/parent/guardian, providing written information where appropriate

To communicate effectively with the multidisciplinary team, parents and guardians regarding the dietetic component of care, to ensure a seamless service

To maintain accurate documentation on-going patient care, including phone contacts in accordance with professional standards

To ensure patients are given dietitian's name and telephone contact

To communicate with healthcare professionals in implementing Trust wide nutrition related policies

To liaise closely with dietitians and health care professionals in other hospitals whenever there is a transfer of patient's care or shared care

To work with healthcare professionals to help improve dietetic care and patient experience

To use computer skills to produce and retrieve clinical information, to communicate to colleagues. and for presentations

3. Education and Training

To maintain own clinical professional development by a variety of means e.g. attending postgraduate training courses, journal reviews in order to maintain up to date clinical knowledge

To act as a source of dietetic expertise and provide up to date information in specialist areas

To educate and update health care professionals on topics linked to paediatric nutrition

To disseminate and implement British Dietetic Association specialist statements

To participate in staff appraisal scheme as both appraiser and appraisee

To be appraised annually and agree objectives for the year and a personal development plan taking into account personal objectives with regards to education and development and Trust objectives including management and service issues

To attend study days linked to clinical supervisory skills and student training

To assist with the student training programme in the department, acting as clinical educator

To be responsible for teaching dietetic students to graduate level on dietetic skills and knowledge within core clinical areas

To give tutorials on clinical topics to students and colleagues

To supervise and guide junior staff to deliver a high standard of clinical care

To contribute to multidisciplinary training programmes linked to nutrition in the Trust and occasionally to external organisations

To participate in paediatric training sessions to educate and update health care professionals in the Trust on nutrition related topics e.g. to Nutrition Link Nurses, medical students

To continually reflect on own practice and improve quality of care through innovative ideas

To participate in the induction and integration of new staff and students

To continually reflect on own practice and participate in peer review

4. Organisation and Management

To prioritise workload and manage own patient caseload

To monitor number of contacts received each month and audit to help develop an effective dietetic service

To assist in managing the service within the resource allocation, reviewing and modifying work practices to maximise effectiveness

To help review the paediatric referral criteria for dietetic input and assist in the management of the workload

To contribute to the pro-active monitoring and review of the nutrition & dietetics service

To provide statistical information regarding workload as required for managerial purposes

To implement a system for monitoring to maintain an adequate stock of diet sheets

To assist the paediatric lead dietitian in the resolution of service and clinical complaints through investigation, review and practice change where indicated

To participate in paediatric service development projects

5. Clinical Governance

To allocate time to implement clinical governance projects linked to CPD

To contribute to resource development in department e.g., presentations on nutrition related topics, nutrition related articles & developing training aids

In collaboration with the paediatric lead dietitian update diet sheets and guidelines by researching evidence-based practice

To collate comments and update departmental policies and procedures to ensure they are evidence-based

To contribute to the implementation of clinical governance in the department

To participate in events linked to promoting dietetics in the Acute Trust

To undertake literature search/article critique and present findings at departmental meetings

To carry out clinical audit and present results to promote evidence-based practice

6. Non Clinical

To demonstrate a sound understanding of clinical governance and risk management and their application to work situation

To implement Health & Safety in the workplace by maintaining a safe environment for patients, staff and visitors at all times

To take responsibility for evaluation and avoidance of risk within department

To act immediately to rectify unsafe practices

To report adverse incidents to staff, patients or any other person according to Trust policy

To attend mandatory training ensuring there is adequate cover for clinical work

To adhere to all Trust and departmental policies and other statutory requirements such as Infection Control

To recognize safeguarding concerns, contribute to safeguarding assessments and to share safeguarding information appropriately and escalate concerns in line with the Trust policy

7. Leadership and Service Development

To help with recruitment and selection of dietitians

To assist with reviewing services provided, identify opportunities, and make recommendations

To participate in meetings and maintain good communication levels within department

To actively contribute towards innovation and improvement of services

To uphold professional and Trust values and ethics

To communicate effectively and work collaboratively with medical, nursing, AHPs and colleagues in other agencies to ensure the delivery of a coordinated multidisciplinary service

To build and maintain relationships between areas or departments

To collect data to produce relevant statistical information on service delivery

To evaluate where clinical improvement is required, initiating and reviewing change as appropriate

8. Professional

To maintain Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration, adhering to the Standards of Conduct Performance and Ethics

To work within the British Dietetic Association (BDA) code of conduct

To provide high quality evidence based service by researching dietetic information

To undertake dietetic audits and surveys

To maintain a professional attitude at all times promoting the role of the Dietitian in the best interest of the patients and profession

To take personal responsibility for the updating of professional skills and developments within the profession by attending relevant study days, literature review and implementing CPD

To be conversant and comply with Trust policies and regulations

About us

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Being open and honest

Ensuring people feel cared for

Showing respect to everyone

We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

DBS Checks and Costs

Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in Supporting Information section for more details on DBS checks and costs.