Paediatric Liver Dietician

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1.8 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced paediatric dietitian to join our paediatric liver & gastroenterology dietetic team. King’s Paediatric Liver Centre is a national hub providing a highly specialised service to children with liver problems. We are the largest service of its type in the world and continue to grow. The centre assesses and treats children with a wide range of conditions including neonatal (newborn) liver diseases (including biliary atresia), chronic liver disease and acute liver failure.

The post holder will specialise in paediatric liver disease and will work within both inpatient and outpatient settings, as well as reviewing patients in virtual/telephone clinics and via email. The post holder will work with children from infancy through to adolescents in the transition service and will provide cover to the parenteral nutrition team. The post would have a specialist interest in MASLD (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease). This is a rapidly developing specialist area and you would be working alongside the current MASLD lead to develop this fast-growing service. This post is part of a team of 5 dietitians working in the area so there may be some flexibility in the caseload depending on the experiences and interests of the candidate.

Main duties of the job

• The provision of an evidence-based dietetic service to patients under the care of Child Health at King’s College Hospital.
• To provide a regional and national dietetic service as part of the supra-regional paediatric liver unit at King’s College Hospital. This involves providing specialist dietetic support to colleagues in shared care hospitals within the UK and Europe.

Working for our organisation

The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King’s to another level.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people. King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of work in compliance with the ethical code of practice set out by the Health and Care Professions Council.
• To work with the dietetic and multidisciplinary teams to formulate and deliver individual dietetic treatment plans for patients based on a sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, critical thinking, reasoning skills and knowledge of a wide range of dietetic treatments.
• Contribute to the local development and delivery of structured education programmes.
• Assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• Evaluate patient progress, reassess and alter treatment regimens as required.
• To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.
• Work within Trust clinical guidelines and to have good working knowledge of national and local standards and monitor quality of practice as appropriate.
• To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient treatment records in line with British Dietetic Association (BDA) and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards of practice.

Person specification

• Current HCPC registration (Essential)
• Wide-ranging and varied paediatric experience (Desirable)
• Experience clinically supervising students (Desirable)

All staff have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and for ensuring they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.

Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. You are advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.