Band 5 Community Dietitian Nutrition Support in Birmingham

This post is open to applicants who are qualified Dietitians who hold current registration with the Health Professions Council in the UK or those who have recently completed their degree and are awaiting their professional registration as a Dietitian.

Birmingham Community Nutrition has a vacancy in our high-profile team and is looking for someone to start your career and develop your skills. This role will work across our community hospitals, with support from senior colleagues. You will support patients mainly in the areas of malnutrition and enteral feeding, working alongside our award-winning Nutrition Nurse team to develop your enteral feeding skills. There are also opportunities to observe our other specialist teams. Community working is its own specialism; you will develop communication, negotiation, networking and promotion skills, liaising with GPs and specialist MDTs across care sectors. As you progress there will be a high degree of autonomy in your practice and day-to-day organisation, supported by colleagues.

BCN provides a comprehensive community citywide service for the Birmingham ICB and employs over 70 staff. We support dietetic A, B & C placements from local higher education institutions.

Main duties of the job

• This post is likely to involve working in all aspects of nutrition support over the period of the post. This includes working to ensure the prescribing of oral nutritional supplements is as clinically appropriate and effective as possible, providing a dietetic service to our bedded units, however nutrition support clinics and some domiciliary caseload work with supervision from a senior dietitian may be required.
• The post will also involve staff training around the use of MUST in a variety of settings and participation in the Trust's innovative work on Nutrition & Hydration. This role will actively promote the prevention of under nutrition within a community setting.

Benefits of working for Birmingham Community Nutrition

• Free parking at all sites
• Access to IT equipment to work remotely
• Up to date office facilities
• Comprehensive admin support dedicated to the service
• Structured approach to Clinical Governance and personal development via preceptorship, annual appraisals, clinical supervision and training opportunities
• Career development, flexible working and staff support are given high priority in the Trust.

Job responsibilities

• To adhere to the standards of conduct, performance and ethics and the dietitians standards of proficiency of the Health Professions Council.
• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of patients within your care.
• To remain aware of the limitation of own knowledge and experience and seek advice and guidance as required.
• To act in a professional manner promoting the organisation, the role of the dietitian and the importance of nutritional care.
• To undertake comprehensive assessment of patients including those with diverse or complex nutritional needs, seeking support as appropriate.
• To plan and deliver individualised nutritional care plans based on comprehensive assessment of needs and knowledge of evidence based practice, modifying the care plan as required.
• To negotiate and agree dietary or nutritional goals with individual patients and/or their carers using motivational interviewing, counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy tools as applicable.
• To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.
• To provide dietetic care to patients in a range of venues across the City including clinics, community hospitals, nursing homes and patients own homes.
• To work with hospital catering staff to develop and monitor menus that contribute to adequate nutritional intakes for patients and residents, including those on therapeutic diets.
• To promote and monitor the use of the nutritional screening tool used in the community hospitals and support the promotion of the city wide community screening tool within nursing homes.
• To support the smooth running of the home enteral feeding service by responding to queries as applicable.
• To maintain accurate and comprehensive patient records in line with the code of conduct and Trust policies, including use of electronic records and a mobile device in patient settings including patients homes.
• To communicate effectively with colleagues within and outside the department to facilitate patient care, service development and multidisciplinary working.
• To support the supervision, teaching, co-ordination and assessment of students and assistants.
• To work flexibly within the job description and carry out other duties as required.

Health Education

• With support of senior colleagues identify, implement and evaluate strategies to influence nutritional choices for the individual and within the community, recognising the diversity within the City.
• To produce practical advice and resources by interpreting, translating and critically evaluating evidence and making this relevant to the intended audience.
• To plan, deliver and evaluate health education sessions to groups of clients on agreed topics.
• To provide education and training to clinicians, health care staff and care home staff on nutritional screening, food fortification, cost effective prescribing of nutritional supplement products and patient monitoring.

Administration and Clinical Governance

• To collect activity statistics within agreed timescales.
• To contribute to dietetic staff meetings, journal reviews, peer review, team meetings, clinical supervision and working groups.
• To undertake mandatory training as required by the trust.
• To contribute to department audit and research programmes.
• To disseminate appropriate evidence/research findings and integrate evidence/research into practice where possible.

Other

• To undertake other duties commensurate with this grade of post in agreement with the relevant line manager.
• To minimise the Trust's environmental impact wherever possible, including recycling, switching off lights, computers, monitors and equipment when not in use, reducing paper waste, and reporting faults promptly.

Person Specification

• Essential Qualifications: Dietitian registered with Health Professions Council (HCPC), Degree or equivalent in Dietetics, Evidence of continual professional development.
• Experience: Understanding of community dietetics, Ability to generate written communication that is concise, accurate and legible, Ability to plan and manage own time, Knowledge of Health Professions Council Code of Conduct and Standards of Proficiency for Dietitians, Knowledge and application of up-to-date evidence based clinical trends in nutrition support.
• Desirable: Ability to demonstrate individual and team responsibility for health and safety.
• Additional essential attributes: flexible in a changing environment, ability to learn and apply knowledge, commitment to team working, ability to travel to different venues within the city daily with equipment.
• Desirable: Ability to work independently, Ability to use tact and diplomacy where necessary.

Disclosure and UK Registration

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and a Disclosure to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) will be required. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.

Employer details

Employer: Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS FT
Address: Moseley Hall Hospital, Alcester Road, Birmingham, B13 8JL