Band 5 Community Dietitian Nutrition Support
This job advert will close as soon as sufficient applications have been received. Please apply for this job as soon as you can, if interested
Are you passionate about nutrition support and keen to consolidate and extend your skills in this clinical area? Due to internal promotions, an exciting opportunity has arisen for early-career registered dietitians to join our friendly community nutrition support team.
Our Band 5s provide specialist assessment & intervention for adult community patients requiring oral nutrition support, acting as a resource for junior staff and other health professionals in the management of undernutrition across Birmingham. Our Band 6s and 7s are committed to supporting your development and you will have regular opportunities to shadow specialist practice and start working with more complex patients, including home enteral feeding patients.
We are seeking applications from registered dietitians or student dietitians close to graduation, with a strong interest in nutrition support, excellent communication and time management skills, and a patient-centred and solution-focused professional practice.
We offer a flexible working environment in a supportive team, with the opportunity to build fulfilling relationships with your patients and colleagues, plus an excellent track record of developing our Band 5s to move into more specialist roles.
Main duties of the job
You will triage, assess and manage a caseload of adult community nutrition support patients - this includes visiting patients in their own homes and care homes, and carrying out community clinics via telephone or in health centres around Birmingham. We try to arrange this practically to avoid excessive travel time for our team members.
After a comprehensive induction you will have a high degree of autonomy in managing your caseload but we are a welcoming supportive team - there is always someone available to message or call, and we meet regularly face to face for clinical supervision and service development.
You will work closely with and give clinical supervision to our Band 4 Dietetic Assistant Practitioner, who works mainly with oral nutrition support patients in care homes. We are also proud to provide highly rated supervision to dietetic learners and apprentices.
The most important skills and qualities for success in this role are:
- the ability to communicate with a diverse range of people and build strong working relationships
- the willingness to learn and share your clinical knowledge in nutrition support and the medical conditions our patients live with
- starting to develop the ability to take complex, evidence-based decisions both in the management of individual patients and prioritisation of your overall caseload
About us
Team members have diverse backgrounds and experience in clinical areas such as oncology, neurorehabilitation, paediatrics and diabetes, and we love to share our knowledge to ensure the best outcomes for our patients.
Benefits of working for Birmingham Community Nutrition include free parking, excellent access to IT equipment to work flexibly, up to date office facilities and comprehensive admin support dedicated to the service.
Be Part of Our Team
BCHC has more than 5000 staff working across Birmingham and the West Midlands in a wide range of community nursing and specialist healthcare roles. BCHC delivers over 100 clinical services, in people's homes, health centres, clinics and inpatient facilities. We deliver a wide range of services for children, young people and families as well as adults and community services, two community hospitals, services for people with learning disabilities, the internationally recognised West Midlands Rehab Centre and one of Europe's leading Dental Hospitals and School of Dentistry. We deliver all of this with a commitment to integrated, personalised care that is rooted in our local communities. We have an ambition to deliver outstanding, integrated care as one of the key NHS providers in the West Midlands.
If you want to 'Be Part of Our Team' and work with a Foundation Trust which is continuously striving for best care and healthy communities, we want to hear from you.
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached job description & person specification document for a detailed description of the duties, responsibilities and key relationships of the role.
Highlights include:
- adhering to HCPC standards of proficiency, continuing professional development, conduct, performance and ethics
- undertaking comprehensive assessment of patients' clinical needs in a holistic manner, seeking support as appropriate
- negotiating and agreeing nutritional goals with patients/carers using motivational interviewing and counselling skills as appropriate, including identifying barriers to change and helping patients/carers to manage them
- liaising with a range of patients, carers, health professionals and suppliers to ensure the provision of effective nutrition support
- managing risk within own clinical caseload and escalating where appropriate
- MDT working with teams inside and outside the Trust
- contributing to clinical governance and quality improvement in the service including audit, research, clinical outcome measures, EPR improvement, and the development and review of local clinical pathways and policies
- achieving basic competencies in knowledge and care of enteral feeding tubes
- professional development opportunities and further shadowing and/or study relating to a range of clinical areas such as neurodegenerative conditions, COPD, dementia, dysphagia, enteral feeding and more, in order to develop the skills to work with complex patients
- supervision, teaching, co-ordination and assessment of students and support staff
- producing practical advice and resources by interpreting, translating and critically evaluating evidence and making this relevant to the intended audience
Person Specification Qualifications & Training
- Dietitian registered with Health Professions Council (HCPC)
- Degree or equivalent in Dietetics
- Evidence of continual professional development
Experience
- Experience of clinical dietetics
- Evidence of experience in nutrition support
- Evidence (either observational or own practice) of developing, implementing and evaluating projects
- Evidence of multi disciplinary working
Skills & Knowledge
- Understanding of community dietetics
- Evidence of ability to demonstrate verbal communication skills and presentation skills
- Evidence of knowledge of the barriers to effective communication giving examples from experience on the ways these have been overcome
- Evidence of ability to generate written communication that is relevant, concise, accurate and legible
- Demonstration of awareness of diversity and evidence of an ability to work within a multicultural setting including teaching individuals and groups from different backgrounds
- An ability to use information technology to maximise personal effectiveness, or a willingness to develop these skills
- Evidence of an ability to plan and manage own time
- Demonstrate knowledge of application of Health Professions Council Code of Conduct and Standards of Proficiency for Dietitians
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge and application of up-to-date evidence based clinical trends and practices in nutrition support
- Evidence of an ability to demonstrate individual and team responsibility in respect of health and safety
Personal Qualities
- An ability to be very flexible in a changing environment
- An ability to demonstrate a commitment to team working
- An ability to learn and apply knowledge appropriately
- An ability to work independently
- An ability to use tact and diplomacy where necessary
Other Job Requirements
- An ability to travel to different venues within the city on a daily basis transporting scales and other equipment
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Technical Block, First Floor and Annex, Gee Business Centre, Holborn Hill,
Technical Block, First Floor and Annex, Gee Business Centre, Holborn Hill,