Registered Dietitian 

Job Description

Registered Dietitian 

Part-time, Fixed Term Contract (2-3 days per week)

£24.50 – £40ph (wage will be agreed in interview depending on experience)

(To end 31^st January 2024, approx. 15 months)

Job Summary:

An exciting and unique opportunity has arisen to work at Fonthill House alongside a wide-ranging multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals.  Fonthill House proudly delivers a safe, dignified, holistic, and person-centred approach to healthcare and wellbeing.  The Registered Dietitian is integral for providing high-quality nutritional expertise to support optimum health and prevent disease.

The post holder will work individually and as part of a team to provide dietetic support to all residents at Fonthill House Nursing Home.  We require a part time Registered Dietitian to cover maternity leave to provide nutrition support and health promotion advice to individuals or groups residing at Fonthill House on a fixed term basis until 31/01/24.  The post holder will plan and prioritise their own clinical caseload and liaise with other services to ensure nutritional care plans are actioned.

Key relationships:GPs, Nurses, Nurse assistants, Carers, Chef and Kitchen staff, Management, Hospitality Lead & Team, SLT, Physio, Occupational therapist, clinical psychologist and Learning Disability Coordinator).

Clinical Responsibilities

• To be responsible for the provision of a specialist, evidence based dietetic service for all individuals residing at Fonthill House.
• To provide high quality, safe dietetic advice contributing to the nutritional care of residents, enabling them to make informed choices about their health and related behaviours.
• To work autonomously by planning and prioritising own clinical caseload. Patients may be referred for a variety of conditions requiring nutrition support (e.g. frailty, gastroenterology, oncology, cardiology, diabetes, neurology, learning disabilities, stroke, dysphagia, tube feeding, terminally ill and palliative care patients), food intolerance, and weight management or to provide a baseline nutritional assessment for new residents.
• To provide thorough dietetic assessment using specialist skills and knowledge to diagnose nutritional problems. This will involve interpretation of biochemical and anthropometric measurements, assessment of oral and non-oral intake, calculation of nutritional requirements, identifying barriers to change, and consideration of social and cultural needs. The outcome of the dietetic consultation will be an agreed individualised patient nutrition action/care plan.
• Use excellent communication and negotiation skills to establish a caring and therapeutic relationship in complex and sometimes highly complex cases, taking into account the views and wishes of service users, carers and families, using their autonomy. Monitor, evaluate and modify treatment in order to measure progress and ensure patient safety, thus maximising effectiveness of dietetic intervention.
• To be flexible and as far as able to accommodate urgent/out of hours dietetic requests or support.
• To adopt a food first approach to nutrition support, but where clinically indicated request oral nutritional supplements are prescribed within ACBS prescribing guidance.
• To be responsible for ordering and maintenance of adequate stocks of ONS samples, but to mindful that there is limited space available to store these.
• To provide specialist advice to GPs and other prescribers on the appropriate prescribing of oral/enteral nutritional supplements (including energy, protein, vitamin and mineral supplements) and medications to improve enteral feed tolerance, as well as advising on potential drug-nutrient interactions.
• To correspond with clinicians, GP’s, & pharmacy regarding appropriate nutritional treatment plans, prescriptions and investigations following dietetic assessment.
• To communicate with local HEF Team with any changes or amendments to enteral feeding regimes for them to update Abbott e-Reg systems.
• Regular maintenance and update of Access Charts, Hospitality Handover Charts, & Dietitian Calendar to communicate nutritional care plans to teams for action.
• To efficiently liaise with other health professionals regarding the transfer of patients from home to hospital to highlight those requiring dietetic review, including malnourished and clinically ill patients requiring nutrition support.
• To proactively seek out handover for new or returning residents from Community/Acute Trust Dietitians handing over patients who may not realise Fonthill has their own dietitian. Referrals may have gone via the local HEF Team or GP.
• Provide expert support and guidance to the Chef Team on nutrition support, healthy choices, and special meals made fresh onsite. To review menu cycles and ensure suitability, and make recommendations to Executive Chef, Food and Beverage Manager.
• To be responsible for obtaining informed consent from patients prior to the commencement of dietetic intervention and treatment.
• To attend once weekly Grand Round with MDT (Thursday mornings). Where this is not possible, to review individual in advance and provide team with dietetic notes ahead of the meeting.
• To work within the framework of Clinical Governance in order to maintain and improve patient care, quality and efficiency.

Professional Responsibilities

• Hold current, valid HCPC Registration.
• To comply with the Dietetics and Health Care Professions Council code of ethics and professional conduct and to adhere to national and local policies and procedures.
• To carry out administrative duties in line with local standards and policies. Ensuring adequate patient records are kept and all requirements for data collection are met.
• To be professionally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work, including management of patients with complex needs.
• To report clinical incidents as per local policy and review errors with management and/or appropriate staff.
• To raise and report safeguarding concerns as per local policy.
• To have thorough knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act and its implications.
• To be committed to regularly check-in remotely to review need for any dietetic concerns for urgent action.
• To attend and actively participate in MDT Clinical Supervision meetings held once a month.
• To achieve and demonstrate agreed standards of personal and professional development within agreed timescales with designated senior appraiser where possible.

Education & Training

• To demonstrate personal and professional development in line with the ethos of lifelong learning.
• To continue the development of training and teaching sessions concerning the identification, treatment and monitoring of malnutrition for health staff.
• To provide nutrition teaching sessions to other members of the multi-disciplinary team on the following topics: nutritional care for the older person, nutrition screening, COPD, Diabetes, Food consistency Descriptors, and all appropriate health promotion initiatives in the local community
• To work with the management, SLT and the head Chef to produce dietetic resources, therapeutic diets and contribute to service development.
• To promote and maintain efficient and safe use of equipment used within the service. 

Research/Audit

• To complete a once monthly weight audit for the entire home and provide results to the CHIT Team via the Director of nursing.
• To undertake supervised research or audit, where appropriate, which will enhance or improve dietetic care and experience for the patient.

Standard Information

Information Governance

Employees of Fonthill Care Ltd must comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. The post holder must not; either during the course of their employment, or following termination of their employment, disclose any information relating to service users or employees, or of the lawful business practices, of the organisation. The post holder will be required, when and where appropriate to the role, to comply with the processing of requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  The post holder must comply with Fonthill Care Ltd policies that protect the information assets of the organisation from unauthorised disclosure, modification, destruction, inappropriate access or use. The post holder will be responsible for maintaining the clinical and/or corporate records that fall within the remit of this role to the standards in Fonthill Care Ltd’s records management policies, and data quality processes and standards.

Health & Safety Compliance with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 – the post holder is required to fulfil a proactive role towards the management of risk in all of their actions. This entails the risk assessment of all situations, the taking of appropriate actions and reporting of all incidents, near misses and hazards, and a statutory duty of care for their own personal safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions. Safeguarding is Everyone’s’ Business.  Fonthill Care Ltd has a responsibility to ensure that all children / young people and adults are adequately safeguarded and protected. As a consequence, all Fonthill care employees, temporary staff and volunteers are required to adhere to Fonthill’s safeguarding policies / procedures in addition to local and national safeguarding policies and to act upon any concerns in accordance with them.

Smoke Free

Fonthill House is Smoke Free.  Smoking is not permitted on any of our premises or the surrounding land including car parking facilities.

Training

The post holder must attend any training that is identified as mandatory to their role. The range of duties and responsibilities outlined above are indicative only and are intended to give an overview of the range and type of duties that will be allocated. They are subject to modification in the light of changing service demands and the development requirements of the post holder.

Equality, Diversity & Human Rights

It is the responsibility of every person to act in ways to support equality and diversity and to respect human rights, working within the spirit and detail of legislation including the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. Fonthill Care Ltd is an equal opportunities employer and aims to challenge discrimination, promote equality and respect human rights.