Community Dietitian - Developmental Role

Community Dietitian – Developmental Role

Are you a self-motivated and resourceful Dietitian looking to further your experience and knowledge in community dietetics with a specialist caseload of home enteral feeds patients? This Band 5-6 Developmental role may be your exciting opportunity join our small and friendly team working within East Coast Community Healthcare CIC (ECCH).

You will have a varied clinical caseload working between clinics, community hospital, care homes and domiciliary visits within this predominately rural geographic area. This is a chance to make a real difference to the nutrition and wellbeing of the patients and carers, many of whom have life limiting conditions. This post is supported by the Home Enteral Feeds/team lead Dietitian and training into this specialist area will be given via clinical supervision and mentoring.

This post is a Band 5 developing to Band 6 Developmental post commencing as Band 5 with clear Competencies to be achieved to attain Band 6 level.

There will be opportunities to share your knowledge and skill via teaching sessions to other professionals mainly promoting the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool. You will also provide clinical support /supervision to junior dietetic colleagues, pre-registration students and become involved with service development.

In addition to Kirkley Mill Surgery and Northgate Hospital the role also involves home working and the option to work from other hot desk areas.

Main duties of the job

To work as an autonomous practitioner in providing specialist dietary advice including home enteral feeds within the agreed geographical area. Completing assessments, goal setting and monitoring their own designated caseload of patients. In domiciliary, clinic and community settings.

To provide and contribute to the development of the adult community dietetic service.

To maintain up to date dietetic records in line with professional standards.

To use evidence based practice and specialist skill to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions.

To provide education and training to other health professionals, community staff and patient groups.

To undertake a mutually agreed set of objectives through the personal development plan, participate in CPD and other developmental activities.

To work with other members of the multidisciplinary team and deliver teaching and supervision to qualified staff, Dietetic Assistants and students.

AI

We recognise that AI tools are increasingly used inprofessional settings. While we encourage strong applications, we valueauthenticity and an accurate reflection of skills and experience.

Applicants must declare if AI has been used to completetheir application, including responses that are directly copied orsignificantly shaped by AI tools.

By submitting this application, you confirm that allinformation provided is a true and accurate representation of your own skills,knowledge, and experience.

About us

ECCH is well established health care provider and has been successfully delivering NHS care within the community since 2011. We provide a range of NHS, community health and social care services predominantly across the easterly region of the Norfolk/Suffolk borders.

We are aligned to NHS terms and conditions, and offer many employee benefits, to find out more about us visit our website – www.ecch.org. We are a social enterprise and staff owned organisation which means staff can opt to be shareholders and have a real say in how ECCH is run and evolves to deliver healthcare for the future.

At the heart of our ambition, we work in partnership with and for the community to become the provider and employer of choice for community healthcare.

We encourage you to apply as early as possible as this job may close earlier than the advertised closing date once enough applications have been received.

The Community Dietetic team has been a valued member of East Coast Community Healthcare for the last 6 years, winning clinical team of the year at ECCH annual staff awards 2024.

We are a small team but work closely with the wider MDT and neighbouring Dietetic services. We are flexible, approachable and open to new ideas. ECCH has been encouraging remote working and the dietetic team is well resourced and supported to work independently out of the office. We are cost conscious, flexible and are paper light.

Job responsibilities

Clinical

To be professionally and legally responsible andaccountable for all aspects of your own work including the management ofpatients in your care. To ensure high standards of clinical care for thepatients under your management and support other to do likewise.

To promote a food first approach to nutritionsupport and advice on the appropriate use of oral nutritional supplements.

To act as a point of contact and source of expertisefor internal and external enquiries to the service concerning general communitydietetics.

To provide dietetic care to patients in a range ofvenues including: community clinics; learning disability homes;nursing/residential homes; community hospital ward and domiciliary visits. Contacts may be face to face, via thetelephone or video consultation.

To promote the use of the Malnutrition UniversalScreening Tool, adapting this if applicable for nursing and residential homes.

To communicate effectively with patients and carers tomaximise their potential and to ensure understanding of the condition and thecare plan. Communication skills of persuasion, motivation and explanation willbe used with a variety of patients. Someof which may have difficulties understanding or communicating.

Communicate effectively with all members of theintegrated community teams, GPs, Consultants and other professions to ensure acollaborative approach to the management of patients conditions.

To assess capacity, gain valid consent and have theability to work with the legal framework with patients who lack capacity toconsent to treatment.

Participate in the clinical cover for communitycolleagues on annual, sick or study leave when required.

Professional

To maintain own clinical professional development bykeeping abreast of evidence based practice and developments and incorporatethem as necessary into your work. To be an active member of the in-servicetraining programme.

To adhere to the standards of conduct, performance andethics and the Dietitians standard of proficiency of the Health CareProfessions Council.

Maintain accurate and up to date documentation in linewith legal and departmental requirements and communicate assessment andtreatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports andletters.

To communicate effectively and work collaborative withthe MDT colleagues across the health economy to ensure delivery of aco-ordinated integrated service.

Identify objectives for personal development andparticipate in the staff appraisals scheme and personal development programme.

Organisational:

Responsible for a designated area of work, as agreedwith the team lead.

Plan and organise this effectively and efficientlywith regards to patient management and use of time.

Decide priorities for own work area balancing otherpatient related and professional demands and ensure that these remain inaccordance with those of the section as a whole.

To be actively involved in the collection ofappropriate data and statistics for the use of the department.

To comply with the organisational and departmentalpolicy and procedures and be involved in the reviewing and updating asappropriate.

To lead by action and inspire others activity as arole model, demonstrating the leadership behaviours and values identified bythe organisation aims and objectives. Promoting the organisation, the role ofthe dietitian and the importance of nutritional care.

Any other duties which might be considered appropriateby the clinical and professional lead.

All roleswithin East Coast Community Healthcare CIC (ECCH) require staff to demonstrate ourValues and Signature Behaviours in the care and service they provide topatients, service users, stakeholders and colleagues. All members of staffshould consider these as an essential part of their job role.

Our Values outline the core behaviours that we can all achieve and are summarised as an acronym within the word CARE. These stand for: Compassion, Action, Respect and Everyone.

Underpinning our Values are our SignatureBehaviours which highlight by taking the right actions we continue to build astrong culture. Our four SignatureBehaviours are: Compassion– We Listen, We Learn,We Lead| Action – MyAccountability, My Responsibility | Respect – RespectOur Resources: People, Time and Money | Everyone – Work Together, Achieve Together.

Person Specification

Personal Attributes

• Able to work collaboratively within a team
• Able to work independently
• Committed to personal and team development
• Able to work with others and pass on skills and knowledge
• Able to maintain judgement under pressure
• Able to maintain motivation, drive and enthusiasm.
• Willingness and ability to work across different clinical settings
• Ability to embrace our Culture, Values and Signature Behaviours:
• (Compassion – We Listen, We Learn, We Lead| Action – My Accountability, My Responsibility | Respect – Respect Our Resources: People, Time and Money | Everyone – Work Together, Achieve Together).
• Willingness and ability to work across different sites and travel to alternative sites and across the community as required.

Experience

• Pre registration experience of dietary management within the community setting
• Post registration clinical experience
• Experience of pre-registration dietetic student training

Skills and Knowledge

• Ability to demonstrate clinical skills and knowledge within the specialist area of community dietetics
• Forward thinking
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Self-directed learning
• Ability to work autonomously
• Critical appraisal
• Audit
• Research

Qualifications

• Registration with the health care professional council
• Membership of specialist interest groups relevant to the specialty

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.