Senior Dietitian (Oncology)

We have a fantastic opportunity for you to join our friendly, supportive and passionate Oncology Team. Ideally you will have previous experience of working with oncology patients, although you will receive training, supervision and support from experienced Dietitians within the Oncology Team. You will have had regular experience in enteral feeding and be confident with the enteral feeding discharge process. Working with other experienced dietetic colleagues you will predominantly support the delivery of care across the head and neck cancer pathway which includes MDT clinics, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. We work very closely with our Speech and Language Therapists, Specialist Nurses, Therapeutic Radiographers and medical colleagues.

The post holder will be based at The James Cook University Hospital site.

The Dietitians working in Head and Neck Cancer support patients from diagnosis, throughout their treatment interventions and as part of best supportive care. Opportunities will be available to experience all aspects of this pathway. This postholder has a particular focus with:

• Increasing dietetic clinical support for patients undergoing radiotherapy / chemo-radiotherapy, including post treatment follow-up and rehabilitation
• Enhancing patient and carer information and resources to support them throughout their journey and enabling timely troubleshooting to keep patients out of hospital where able.
• Supporting delivery of education to other healthcare professionals throughout the Head and Neck Cancer Pathway to enhance all aspects of nutritional care throughout the patient journey.

Alongside the rest of the oncology dietetics team, you will be actively involved in training and supervision of our dietetic students, dietetic apprentices and Band 5 workforce. You will also work alongside colleagues on delivery of our initiatives/action plans to support delivery of cancer care. Assistant and clerical support is also available and based in our main office in the Rehabilitation Centre at The James Cook University Hospital. Staff have access to excellent facilities for education and development in the STRIVE Academic Centre.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust offers leadership and improvement training to all new staff. This training programme has been designed to support our leaders in developing their understanding of leadership and management skills. You will be expected to attend the following training sessions:

• Your Leadership Impact
• Leading your Team to Success
• Leading Into the Future
• Service Improvement for Beginners
• Developing your Service Improvement Skills
• Lean Practitioner

The leadership and improvement programme aims to:

• Explore leadership within the NHS
• Promote Trust values and behaviours
• Develop your leadership effectiveness and skills
• Equip staff with the necessary knowledge and skills to lead and complete service improvements within the scope of your role.

After you complete these six and a half days of training you will be able to explore further leadership and improvement training opportunities. We also offer a range of additional in-house and externally provided courses and bitesize programmes through our Leadership and Improvement Team.

Please see the full job description and person specification document(s) for main responsibilities of the role.

Essential qualifications and training include:

• To hold a Degree in Dietetics or equivalent
• To be registered as a Dietitian and fit to practice by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• To evidence commitment to continuing professional development
• Clinical supervisory skills training

Desirable qualifications include:

• Leadership training

Essential experience includes:

• Can demonstrate relevant/varied post graduate experience across a variety of clinical areas including oncology, enteral feeding and other relevant specialities.
• Post-graduate experience of working within a NHS hospital setting
• Experienced with home enteral tube feeding / feeding discharges

Desirable experience includes:

• Working in palliative care

Essential knowledge and skills include:

• Evidence of participation in audit and service development
• Basic IT skills

Desirable knowledge includes:

• Membership of: British Dietetic Association (BDA), BDA Oncology groups and other relevant groups
• Skills in the use of SystmOne or other electronic patient records

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.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.