Job Description

Job Overview
 To plan and deliver a high-quality Nutrition and Dietetic service within the ICSS Team and contribute to service development as required.
 To work as both as an autonomous practitioner and alongside the senior stroke dietician delivering a high quality dietetic service to patients on the ICSS caseload.
 To help to support and/or establish audit and robust evaluation of the service.

 To have a high level of knowledge, skills and experience in order to approach tasks with an open and understanding mind and deal with situations in a timely and empathic manner.
 To be responsible for nutrition and dietetic participation in multi-professional teams and contribute to policy making as directed by the head of service.
 To work as a key member of the Multi-disciplinary Team.
 To support both formal and informal training and education as required.

https://www.cornwallft.nhs.uk/current-vacancies/#!/job/v7598852

Duties and Responsibilities
Communication and Working Relationships
 An ability to listen to, and communicate highly complex Information in a sensitive, tactful, and empathic way both verbally and in writing to service users, carers, general public and colleagues.
 Experience of using advanced communication skills including negotiation, advocacy, and easy read information to support implementation of dietary advice.
 An understanding of the mental capacity act, ‘best interest’ decision making and the ethical considerations within these frameworks.
 Experience of representing the importance of dietetic intervention within the multiple and complex needs of service users.
 To act as a resource on nutritional issues to the multidisciplinary team in these areas, promoting healthy lifestyle and good nutrition for all individuals that use the services and to provide relevant staff training.
 An ability to work effectively as a member of the ICSS Team and work collaboratively with other teams across the stroke pathway.
 Experience supervising student dietitians including assessment and the delivery of constructive feedback.
 Experience of interpreting and acting on complex clinical information including anthropometry, biochemistry, pharmacology, and medical history to make decisions about patient care.
 Experience and competence in calculating nutritional requirements and practising in a range of clinical conditions including artificial nutrition support (enteral nutrition).
 Experience and competence in negotiating and recording aims of treatment and agreeing a plan of action with service user/relatives/carers/clinical staff.
 Experience in managing a defined clinical case load.
 An ability to demonstrate autonomy and leadership by continuous evaluation of day-to-day clinical demands and priorities, with subsequent adjustment of service delivery to meet this need.
 Demonstrate the ability to work well within a multidisciplinary team.
 An ability to demonstrate high level of self-awareness, empathy and emotional resilience enabling the practitioner to work within emotionally demanding situations on an on-going basis.
 Experience of dealing with a distressed service user, carers, or colleague.
 To communicate effectively with patients and carers routine and potentially complex, sensitive, or distressing information; to provide patient centered care.
 In inpatient settings, ensure that the therapeutic diets, as prescribed, are delivered to individuals using the service, liaising with nursing staff, catering staff, pharmacy, and supplies department to ensure this.
 It will be expected that the post holder works closely with:
o The ICSS Team including stroke specialist community nurses, Generic Rehabilitation Technicians, other allied health professionals (eg. speech and language therapists,
physiotherapists, occupational therapists), psychologists, medical staff.
o Staff from independent providers of care e.g., carers, social care.
o Nutrition and Dietetic colleagues.
o Contracted enteral feed company.

Management and Personal Development
 Degree in Nutrition/Dietetics or equivalent leading to Health Professions Council (HPC) Registration as a Dietitian.
 Varied clinical experience to demonstrate the ability to deliver best practice instroke care.
 To contribute to the management of resources within the clinical and professional area, e.g., nutritional products, equipment, and literature.
 To display enthusiasm, self-motivation, and pragmatism.
 Demonstrate complex data collection, analysis, reporting and presentation.
 Demonstrate the use of Evidence based practice.
 Experience of developing evidence-based information, guidelines, and protocols for a range of more complex needs for a wide range of people e.g., service users, carers, general public and
healthcare workers.
 Evidence of reflection on and in clinical practice, to identify areas for development and formulate plans to address these.
 As part of the appraisal system to be able evaluate personal progress against agreed objectives on a regular basis and to identify personal training needs on at least an annual basis.
 Experience of delivering a range of nutrition and dietetic services.
 Evidence of an accurate and up to date portfolio to demonstrate Continued Professional Development (CPD) and lifelong learning.
 To identify training needs and present to manager.
 To deliver education sessions formal and informal to small and large (greater than twenty) groups at varying levels e.g., service users, staff teams within care environments, community,
postgraduate centre, etc.
 Provide “on the job” training for staff and student nurses.
 Evaluate the delivery, perception, and application of any educational intervention.
 To be responsible for Student Dietetic Training and the development of student dietitians, tutorials, supervision, assessment etc.
 To be responsible for supervision and training of Band 5 dietitians, dietetic support workers and dietetic assistants as required.

Clinical Activities
 To work as an autonomous practitioner within the ICSS Team, delivering a high-quality dietetic service in Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT).
 To take responsibility for working within codes of practice (HPC), occupational standards (BDA) and CPFT policies and procedures.
 Required to work across community settings in Cornwall without direct supervision from the rest of the dietetic team. To provide follow-up, either at home, care settings or in a clinic setting, as deemed appropriate.
 To provide experienced Dietetic support and advice for adults with a diagnosis of stroke and TIA
 To be responsible for stroke survivors referred for dietetic intervention. To plan and organise efficiently and effectively their care with regard to individual need and the use of time. To
contribute to the development of referral guidelines as appropriate.
 Communication skills of active listening, emotional engagement, empathy, tact, openness, motivation, and reassurance will be used with a variety of service users. Barriers to effective
communication will regularly be evident e.g., anxiety, fear, altered perceptions, impaired sight, impaired hearing, difficulty in understanding information and expressing themselves.
 Undertake dietary review and nutrition assessment (including consideration of anthropometry, biochemistry, pharmacology, and medical history) of service users and set a plan of care for their care within this remit.
 To record accurately all assessments and interventions in RIO electronic patient records in line with Trust policy and agreed practice within the ICSS Team.
 Communicate in writing to the referrer and agreed individuals within the service users care network, noting nutrition status of service user and dietary plan given and the follow-up
arrangements, maintaining accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date documentation, in line with legal and departmental requirements.
 To communicate individual nutrition and hydration care plans effectively with other appropriate health-professionals.
 To work collaboratively with other disciplines, ensuring delivery of coordinated multidisciplinary services.
 To contribute to the development of dietetic specific resources.
 To develop a network of communication between other agencies e.g., independent providers of care, primary, secondary, and tertiary health teams.
 Liaise with other specialist practitioners on a local, Peninsula wide and National level to promote equitable, evidence-based practice.
 To communicate effectively with service users and carers to optimise individuals’ nutrition management, wellbeing, recovery opportunities and primary and secondary disease
prevention. To recognize that individual patients have different needs for information at different phases of their illness and to be responsive to patients’ needs.
 To have the ability to deal appropriately with daily exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances.
 To be sensitive to service users’ and carers’ spiritual needs and to be aware of local resources for spiritual care.
 To be able to recognise psychological needs of service users and know when to refer to a specialist service.
 To act as an advocate for the service user. To be involved in mechanisms to gather the views of service users and carers of the service.
 To have a wide knowledge of the range of oral and enteral nutrition products available and be able to recommend these appropriately.

Strategic Development, Planning and Organising
Ability to use time management, communication and/or team working skills effectively.
 To manage own time and caseload appropriately and decide priorities of own workload. To balance other service user related and professional demands and to ensure that these remain in
accordance with those of the nutrition and dietetic department as a whole.
 To assess and report on caseload, service user profile and assess needs of post on a regular basis, at least annually.
 To work alongside the band 7 specialist dietitian for stroke to aid with the assessment of current service delivery and identify are as for development and to help formulate plans to achieve this.
 Evidence of active participation in Clinical Governance issues in relation to dietetic practice
 Evidence of active participation in audit activities in dietetic practice.
 To lead audit and clinical governance projects in line with departmental and multi-professional team objectives and under supervision of the lead dietitian.
 To initiate, comment and take action on departmental policies, procedures and matters relating to nutrition and dietetics.
 To be proactive in the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of networking and liaison, the production of audits, projects, and outcome measures to inform service delivery and development.
 To attend, contribute to and when necessary multi-disciplinary meetings.
 To participate in departmental Personal Development Review (PDR) on an annual basis.
 To review current clinical literature and disseminate relevant information to colleagues.
 To co-ordinate best practice initiatives (evidence based, in line with clinical guidelines).

IT Systems and Processes
 Computer literacy skills, including quick and accurate use of keyboard, presentation of data, word processing, electronic delivery of presentations report writing and internet use to inform practice.
 To record accurately all assessments and interventions in the electronic record system in line with trust policy.
 Complete all necessary clinical documentation in accordance with organisational and professional standards.
 Use specialist dietary analysis packages and the interpretation and communication of these results to individuals and health professionals.
 Provide written nutritional plans and/or dietary goals to support the care plan.
 Provide written reports in accordance with the organisation and professional standards for Care Plan Approach reviews.

Additional Information
Code of Conduct
The post holder is required to comply with all relevant Code of Conducts for the role, including the Trusts Code of Conduct. All staff are required to support the Trust’s commitment to developing and delivering excellent customer service by treating patients their carers, families, friends, visitors and staff with professionalism, dignity and respect. All staff are expected to behave in a professional manner and not to bring the Trust into disrepute.

Confidentiality and Data Protection Act
All NHS employees have a duty to maintain confidentiality under both common law and the Data Protection Act 2018. Service users and staff have a right to expect that any information, whether personal or commercial, held by the Trust will be treated in a confidential manner. All employees of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust must not, without prior permission, disclose any information regarding patients or staff.

Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults
All employees of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust must be familiar with and adhere to the Trust’s safeguarding policies and procedures.

Personal Development
All employees are required to undertake statutory and essential training as directed by the Trust. This will be monitored through the supervision and appraisal process which is in place for all staff to participate in.

Risk Management and Health and Safety
All employees of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust are required to make positive efforts to maintain their own personal safety and that of others. You are reminded of your responsibilities for health and safety at work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 as amended and associated legislation. These include the duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of yourself and of others in your work activities or omissions, and to co-operate with your employer in the discharge of its statutory duties. It is also essential that precautions advised by Management, Occupational Health, Risk & Safety Services, etc. are adhered to for your own protection.

Infection Prevention and Control
All staff, collectively and individually, has a duty of care in following best practice in adherence to guidelines which is a fundamental requirement in underpinning the management of infection control.

Location/Mobility
In accordance with the Trust’s requirements, all staff are required to undertake work and alternative duties as reasonably directed at variable locations in the event of, and for the duration of a significant internal incident, major incident or pandemic. You may be required to work at or from any additional location as determined by the Trust. You may also be required to travel between Trust premises for the performance of your duties.

Equal Opportunities
The aim of the Trust’s policy is to ensure that no job applicant or employee is discriminated against either directly or indirectly on the grounds of race, creed, sex, marital status, disability, age, nationality, ethnic or national origins. The Trust commits itself to promote equal opportunities and will keep under review its policies, procedures and practices, to ensure that all users and providers of its services are treated according to their needs.

Review of the Job Description
This job description is not intended to be exhaustive and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances, in discussion with the post holder. This role profile is intended to provide a broad outline of the main responsibilities only. The post holder will need to be flexible in developing the role with initial and on-going discussions with the designated manager.

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 is applicable to this post. Therefore should you be offered the post it will be subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service check satisfactory to the Trust. You will therefore be required to declare all criminal convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings that would not be filtered in line with current guidance