Bank-Diabetes Specialist Dietitian Band 7 in Essex

To work as an autonomous specialist Dietitian and provide a comprehensive and effective paediatric dietetic service to Basildon Hospital patients and carers. To manage a complex paediatric clinical caseload providing specialist dietetic advice, support, clinical assessment and education to children. To have lead responsibility for the provision of Nutrition and Dietetic care to children with diabetes, and lead on service improvement in this specialist area. To work very closely with the diabetes multi-disciplinary team in providing a specialised dietetic service to children/young people and their families, regarding diabetes management, and to ensure the Trust meets the dietetic elements of Best Practice Tariff.

To provide assessment, management and ongoing education antenatally for expectant mothers with pre-existing Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes, working closely with the multidisciplinary team. To provide assessment, management and ongoing education for paediatric diabetes patients, and their families. To provide specialist expertise to support the self-management of children with diabetes on pump therapy.

To be responsible for ensuring that patients and carers have consented prior to dietetic intervention in line with professional guidelines. To have the ability to utilize highly developed communication and teaching skills to communicate highly complex information in an understandable form to the diverse population in the hospital where there may be significant barriers to understanding e.g. impaired cognition and difficulties in speaking. To communicate effectively with patients and carers to ensure understanding of clinical condition and the individual dietary management plan and encourage their active participation throughout the care process. This will frequently involve clients/carers who have complex emotional, physical and psychological problems.

To undertake dietetic consultations within a framework of behavioural approaches including negotiation, persuasion and motivational interviewing skills. To represent the dietetic service and individual patients at the multi-disciplinary team meetings, to ensure the delivery of a co-ordinated service and to integrate dietetic treatment into the treatment programme. This will include discussion of patient care and patient progress and ensure collaborative working within the multi-agency setting, as required.

To provide evidence based specialist dietetic input to multidisciplinary paediatric diabetes clinics, multidisciplinary antenatal clinics, joint nurse/dietitian led diabetes clinics, dietitian led diabetes clinics in line with best practice criteria. To see children and young people as inpatients with newly diagnosed diabetes. To undertake comprehensive diet/lifestyle assessments and formulate individualised patient management/treatment plans to optimise blood glucose levels within the hospital or home/school environment, as required.

To work autonomously to provide expert dietary advice to clinicians, team members, patients and their families, education and social care regarding dietetic management (including discharge planning). This will involve nutritional assessment, calculation of nutritional requirements, making recommendations to the medical team regarding adaptation of medication for the management of specific clinical conditions based on interpretation of biochemical parameters.

To work closely with the Lead Paediatric Diabetes Dietitian and Paediatric Diabetes Nurses to develop and implement structured education for children and young people with diabetes. To review the management of children and young people on insulin therapy e.g. insulin delivery before meals. To educate on how to change bolus doses to account for blood glucose levels and carbohydrate intake. To be responsible for initiating nutritional management of insulin pump therapy e.g. carbohydrate counting, different bolus types. To be aware of the national evidence base for insulin therapy and carbohydrate management and contribute to the development of local guidelines.

To work in collaboration with other team members, CYP and family to gather facts to achieve the most appropriate individualised care plan. To produce new teaching materials, diet sheets, surveys, projects, research schemes and develop activities for patients where the need arises within area of dietetic speciality. To support the implementation of nutrition policies.