Job Description

Are you newly qualified band 5 Dietitian or a band 5 looking for a rotational post? Following internal promotion, the dietetic service within Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership has a great opportunities for you to work in a band 5 rotational post across our integrated acute and community dietetic service.



The successful candidates will be part of the band 5 rotation gaining clinical experience in both the acute and community dietetic teams. They will develop their dietetic skills within a variety of clinical areas providing a service to in-patients wards and out-patients clinics based at Leighton Hospital, rotating through gastroenterology, surgery, diabetes and stroke. There is also opportunity to work with the community home enteral feeding dietetic team and general practice service offering a wider experience at the start of a career.



Attendance at regular huddle meetings supports extending clinical practice and workload management, alongside regular supervision with your mentor promoting advancement of your clinical skills and confidence.



The post holder will be involved in on-going health care professional training in nutritional screening /food first advice and structured group patient education linked to their rotation including IBS/FODMAP, cardiac rehabilitation, Gestational Diabetes and T1DM & T2DM . The service has developed virtual training to support and enhance patient care.



Participation in dietetic student training is an important commitment for our service for which the post holder will receive training and guidance.



The post holder should have developed communication, interpersonal and organisation skills, be able to prioritise a caseload and seek assistance as appropriate



Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHFT) provides good quality, safe and effective healthcare to the people of Cheshire and beyond. The Trust, which manages Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Victoria Infirmary in Northwich, and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre in Winsford, was established as an NHS Trust in April 1991 and became a Foundation Trust in April 2008.



We employ almost 5,000 members of staff, provide around 540 hospital beds, with a range of services including accident and emergency, maternity, outpatients, therapies, and children's health.



The Trust is also part of Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership (CCICP), a unique local health partnership that provides a range of community services for people across South Cheshire and Vale Royal.



During the Coronavirus pandemic, the Trust was recognised nationally for its 'Be Safe Be EquiPPEd' campaign, which aimed to make the Trust as safe as possible for staff and patients, through supporting the correct use of PPE.



The results in the 2020 national NHS Staff Survey showed improvements in all elements of the safety culture theme, with 92% of respondents feeling their role made a difference to our patients. We were also recognised nationally for our workforce health and wellbeing initiatives.



At Mid Cheshire, we value our staff and appreciate that in order to give our patients the best quality, compassionate care, we also need to look after our colleagues.



JOB PURPOSE

1. To contribute to the delivery of dietetic services to adult patients across Mid Cheshire Hospitals Trust and Central Cheshire as part of the Adult Dietetic Team.

2. To managing and prioritising a defined patient caseload on wards at Leighton Hospital, provide a regular general dietetic clinic, community visits and patient education.

3. To formulate, deliver and monitor nutritional care plans for referred patients across a range of general wards and outpatient settings.

SERVICE DELIVERY

1. To practice safely within the professional code of conduct and level of competency for all aspects of work, including the management of patients in your care.

2. To deliver the dietetic service to non-complex clinical areas such as General Medicine including cardiology, respiratory medicine and General Surgery includes orthopaedics.



3. To communicate information in an understandable form to patients which may include giving difficult to accept information e.g. life-long adherence to a restricted diet.

4. To gain acceptance for treatment and motivate/persuade patients to comply with treatment programmes where there may also be barriers to understanding such as dementing illness, cognitive impairment, hearing or sight impairment.



5. To assess nutritional status taking into account anthropometric data, clinical condition/treatment, biochemical data and social and cultural factors.



6. To estimate the patient's current nutritional intake and nutritional requirements using recognised validated techniques where available.



7. To collect all relevant information such as dietary history, drug history and medical history in order to formulate nutritional care plans and deliver personalised verbal and written information to patients.



8. To monitor and review nutritional care plans against outcome measures and adjust care plans to facilitate achievement of goals.



9. To liaise with catering staff to ensure appropriate therapeutic diets are provided.

10. To provide information and support to other health care professionals to ensure a multidisciplinary ward team approach to nutritional care.



11. To contribute to ward rounds and case conferences as appropriate to explain nutritional plans.

12. To accurately record all assessments and interventions in medical notes, nursing documentation and dietetic record cards in line with service Policy. To communicate in writing



with other agencies e.g. GP's, community dietitians, consultants to keep them fully informed about ongoing patient management.

13. To ensure safe and timely discharge of patients particularly those requiring home enteral feeding to include liaison with relevant community health care professionals. To be responsible for arranging feed, equipment and training.

14. To be responsible for safe use and tracking of equipment by patients in your care e.g. scales, feeding equipment.

15. To provide dietetic input into patient group sessions, which will facilitate lifestyle change such as cardiac rehabilitation. This should include planning, delivery and evaluation of the session providing advice to patients which is clear, consistent and evidence based.