Team Lead Dietitian - (Gastro & Acute Services) in Oxford

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. The Trust comprises four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence.

Job overview: We are excited to be recruiting a Team Lead Dietitian. If you are a Band 7 dietitian looking to gain more leadership experience, or a Band 6 looking to advance your career, we would love to hear from you, apply now! This post offers great clinical variety and the ability to advance knowledge and skills, particularly in gastroenterology and complex medicine. You will also lead the team of 8 dietitians with support from fellow Team Lead Dietitians.

This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the best teaching hospitals in the UK and offers the successful candidates the opportunity to gain valuable training so that they can only advance their careers but join a team that offers the very best in nutritional care. We encourage every Band 7 to protect 30% of their time within the role to development, both individually and as a service. This can include quality improvement projects, clinical audit and CPD, as well as service development alongside the MDT.

As a valued member of our team, you will receive:

• Flexible working, including opportunities for home working
• Clinical supervision and support from experienced and specialist dietitians
• Dedicated time for professional and service development
• Regular appraisals and personalised development plan
• Access to a range of CPD opportunities, the Oxford AHPs Research & Innovation Unit, and Bodleian Library collection

Main duties of the job:

• Provide a clinical dietetic service to patients of the Oxford University Hospitals Trust, including sole responsibility for highly specialised clinical areas.
• Provide a high quality and comprehensive Dietetic Service to the Gastroenterology Unit, including acute eating disorder admissions, and to Gastro / Liver Outpatient clinics, with the assistance of Band 5 and Band 6 Dietitians.
• As the Team Lead, have responsibility for leading, supervising and supporting a team of dietitians providing a dietetic service to the JR, Horton and NOC Hospitals, primarily in the areas of gastroenterology, emergency surgery, and acute and specialist medicine.
• Work as an integral member of the multidisciplinary team to provide a flexible, prioritised service based on clinical need.
• Educate, train and disseminate information to healthcare professionals including clinicians, nurses, Allied Health Professionals, dietetic colleagues and students in all aspects of nutrition and dietetics.
• Participate and play a key role with other dietitians in the development of evidence based trust-wide multidisciplinary nutrition guidelines and policies.
• Along with the Service manager, work closely with the other Dietetic Team Leads to support the running of the whole Dietetic Department.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• Work autonomously and manage own specialised caseload of patients.
• The post holder has responsibility for providing a highly skilled dietetic service in gastroenterology – across both inpatient and outpatient areas.
• Provision of a dietetic service includes the following aspects:

• To judge and determine appropriateness of referrals made by members of the multidisciplinary team.
• Obtain and analyse relevant information from different sources to make a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s condition.
• To assess the nutritional status of individual patients based on various parameters.
• Calculate nutritional requirements based on established guidelines.
• Discussion and negotiation of treatment options to individualise and establish the most appropriate methods of treatment.
• To formulate individualised patient care plans, taking into consideration various factors affecting nutrition support.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of nutritional goals and modify as necessary.
• To communicate effectively with patients, carers and other health professionals.

• To work as part of the team of team leads to support the smooth running and quality service delivery of the Dietetics department.
• To lead on service planning within the identified clinical area.
• Monitor and allocate workload/distribution including overseeing annual and study leave requests.
• Ensuring that all team members have an annual appraisal.
• Lead on recruitment to vacant posts in clinical team.
• To organise and lead the clinical team including provision of reports/documentation on clinical service.

• Be accountable for own actions working within the professional, ethical and legal framework for dietetics.
• To take responsibility for own continuing professional development (CPD).
• Participate in departmental audits and initiate audit within own work area.
• Be involved with the dietetic student training programme.

• To determine priorities for own work area based on clinical need.
• To collect activity data daily as required by the department.
• To maintain accurate and legible documentation of patient interventions.

Person specification:

• Recognised Nutrition & Dietetic Degree or equivalent
• Registered with Health Professions Council as a Dietitian
• Evidence of successful completion of significant specialist post graduate training equivalent to Masters level in this clinical area.
• Evidence of completion of informal/formal leadership training

• Evidence of high level of specialist dietetic knowledge/skills in this clinical area
• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of clinical nutrition
• Evidence of leadership experience

• Able to listen well and counsel colleagues, staff, patients and carers
• Able to communicate effectively particularly where barriers to understanding exist

COVID‑19: The COVID‑19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings.

Vacancy Closures: Please note, this vacancy may close early if a high volume of applications are received.

Probation Period: This post is subject to a 6 month probationary period.

Next Steps: Please make sure that you read the job description and person specification, and that your supporting statement reflects this as your application will be judged against these criteria.