Critical Care Specialist Dietitian

BAND 7 SPECIALIST DIETITIAN FOR CRITICAL CARE (12 months Fixed term)

1.0 WTE, 37.5 hours per week

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Woolwich, is offering a fantastic opportunity for an experienced and enthusiastic Dietitian to join our Critical Care MDT. We are seeking a Critical Care Specialist Dietitian for a 12 month contract to cover a Maternity leave. We are a friendly department comprising 30 dietitians across the two hospital sites of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. You will be joining our QEH team of Dietitians, Assistants and Admin staff, and will develop close working relationships with the ICU MDT at QEH, and ICU Dietetic colleagues at Lewisham Hospital.

This is an excellent opportunity to expand and develop your knowledge, skills and leadership in this specialist area. Responsibilities will include:

·         Providing the dietetic service to Critical Care Unit - a busy 18 bedded unit offering exposure to a wide range of level 2 and 3 patients with complex clinical conditions.

·         Daily ward rounds with the consultant-led multidisciplinary team

·         Service development including audits, and engaging with research opportunities.

·         Attending weekly MDT meetings, and monthly clinical governance meetings.

·         Delivering teaching and training programmes for the junior doctors on ICU and nurses on the Critical Care course

Along with your Band 7 colleagues you will be involved in leading on service improvements and the development of policies, guidelines and specialist resources. You will also provide supervision and support to Band 5 and Band 6 dietitians to develop team skills and resilience.

All Team members are supported to participate in audits, service evaluations, and continuous professional development. All Dietetic staff are actively involved in training students from the London universities on the 1, 2, 3 Placement programme.

Applications for full time or part-time hours will be considered.

For an informal chat please call 020 8836 5062 to speak to Daniel Baptiste, Deputy Head of Dietetics, ([email protected]) or Amy Linehan, Critical Care Dietitian ([email protected])

Job Summary:

1.    To act as an advanced specialist within a critical care, managing own highly specialist caseload

2.    To provide advanced nutritional and dietetic advice in specialist area to medical, health care professionals and other agencies.

3.    To assess plan and implement treatment programmes and monitor patients in a variety of settings, offering therapeutic dietary advice and education, to address patients` complex and changing needs.

4.    To participate in service development within own clinical area and contribute to the nutrition and dietetic service as a whole through participation in service development.

5.    To provide leadership and training within specialist area for other dietetic colleagues

Clinical responsibilities:

·         Act as an independent advanced practitioner and be professionally and legally accountable and take responsibility for all aspects of own highly specialist clinical caseload.

·         Work independently to undertake nutritional assessments and calculate nutritional requirements of patients with complex conditions using anthropometry.

·         Communicate evidence based nutritional and dietary advice in an understandable form.

·         Use highly developed communication and counselling skills such as reflective listening, open questioning, empathy, explanation and reassurance to communicate dietary intervention to patients and carers.

·         Gain valid consent to treatment and negotiate change with patients by breaking down barriers, using motivational skills, to enable them to achieve dietary targets set.

·         Devise, monitor and review nutritional care plans against outcome measures taking into account social, psychological, cognitive, behavioural and cultural needs, as well as taking into account the needs of the carer and adjust care plan to facilitate achievement of goals.

·         Actively participate in multidisciplinary team meetings.

·         Ensure safe and timely transfer of patients by liaising with appropriate internal and external agencies.

·         Provide dietetic cover to other areas during periods of annual leave/sick leave.

·         Accurately record all assessments and interventions in medical notes, nursing documentation and electronic patient record system in line with Trust policy.

·         Facilitate discharge of patients with complex needs by liaising with hospital staff, external agencies and multidisciplinary teams about the nutritional management of patients discharged into and their continued diet therapy within the community.

(See Job Description and Person Specification for full details)