Band 6 Paediatric Dietitian

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.

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.

Job description

Job

responsibilities

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 improv