Bank-Diabetes Specialist Dietitian Band 7

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust; Essex; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS foundation trust in Essex is seeking an experienced Dietitian to provide specialist dietetic services for pediatric patients. Responsibilities include managing diabetes care, working closely with multidisciplinary teams, and providing education to families. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in pediatric dietetics and the ability to communicate complex information effectively. This role offers opportunities for professional development and collaboration within a supportive healthcare environment.

Qualifications

• Autonomous specialist Dietitian with experience in paediatric care.
• Skilled in managing complex dietary needs and providing education.
• Knowledgeable in diabetes treatment protocols and nutritional management.

Responsibilities

• Manage a complex paediatric clinical caseload with dietary needs.
• Provide education on diabetes management to children and families.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams for patient care.

Skills

Communication

Nutritional Assessment

Motivational Interviewing

Team Collaboration

Education

Registered Dietitian qualification

Job description

JOB SUMMARY – About the Role

• To work as an autonomous specialist Dietitian and provide a comprehensive and effective paediatric dietetic service to Basildon Hospital patients and carers. To manage a complex paediatric clinical caseload providing specialist dietetic advice, support, clinical assessment and education to children.
• To have lead responsibility for the provision of Nutrition and Dietetic care to children with diabetes, and lead on service improvement in this specialist area. To work very closely with the diabetes multi-disciplinary team in providing a specialised dietetic service to children/young people and their families, regarding diabetes management, and to ensure the Trust meets the dietetic elements of Best Practice Tariff.
• To provide assessment, management and ongoing education antenatally for expectant mothers with pre-existing Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes, working closely with the multidisciplinary team.
• To provide assessment, management and ongoing education for paediatric diabetes patients, and their families.
• To provide specialist expertise to support the self-management of children with diabetes on pump therapy., Communication
• To be responsible for ensuring that patients and carers have consented prior to dietetic intervention in line with professional guidelines.
• To have the ability to utilize highly developed communication and teaching skills to communicate highly complex information in an understandable form to the diverse population in the hospital where there may be significant barriers to understanding e.g. impaired cognition and difficulties in speaking.
• To communicate effectively with patients and carers to ensure understanding of clinical condition and the individual dietary management plan and encourage their active participation throughout the care process. This will frequently involve clients/carers who have complex emotional, physical and psychological problems.
• To undertake dietetic consultations within a framework of behavioural approaches including negotiation, persuasion and motivational interviewing skills.
• To represent the dietetic service and individual patients at the multi-disciplinary team meetings, to ensure the delivery of a co-ordinated service and to integrate dietetic treatment into the treatment programme. This will include discussion of patient care and patient progress and ensure collaborative working within the multi-agency setting, as required.
• See JD for full description, To provide evidence based specialist dietetic input to multidisciplinary paediatric diabetes clinics, multidisciplinary antenatal clinics, joint nurse/dietitian led diabetes clinics, dietitian led diabetes clinics in line with best practice criteria.
• To see children and young people as inpatients with newly diagnosed diabetes.
• To undertake comprehensive diet/lifestyle assessments and formulate individualised patient management/treatment plans to optimise blood glucose levels within the hospital or home/school environment, as required.
• To work autonomously to provide expert dietary advice to clinicians, team members, patients and their families, education and social care regarding dietetic management (including discharge planning). This will involve nutritional assessment, calculation of nutritional requirements, making recommendations to the medical team regarding adaptation of medication for the management of specific clinical conditions based on interpretation of biochemical parameters.
• To work closely with the Lead Paediatric Diabetes Dietitian and Paediatric Diabetes Nurses to develop and implement structured education for children and young people with diabetes.
• To review the management of children and young people on insulin therapy e.g. insulin delivery before meals.
• To educate on how to change bolus doses to account for blood glucose levels and carbohydrate intake.
• To be responsible for initiating nutritional management of insulin pump therapy e.g. carbohydrate counting, different bolus types.
• To be aware of the national evidence base for insulin therapy and carbohydrate management and contribute to the development of local guidelines.
• To work in collaboration with other team members, CYP and family to gather facts to achieve the most appropriate individualised care plan.
• To produce new teaching materials, diet sheets, surveys, projects, research schemes and develop activities for patients where the need arises within area of dietetic speciality.
• To support the implementation of nutrition policies.
• Please see full JD.

NHS AfC: Band 7

Working for our organisation

With a workforce of approximately 15,000 staff, we can now do more and go further in delivering health services to our local communities.

Our ambition is to deliver excellent local and specialist services, to improve the health and well being of our patients, and provide a vibrant place for staff to develop, innovate and build careers.

Patients will experience improved care as well as fewer delays and cancellations. We are able to provide more once-in-a-lifetime specialist care region-wide. With our new trust size will come more opportunities for development, research, networking and innovation.

We aim to make the most of our skills and experiences so we can become the best we can be. As one organisation we will recruit the finest and retain more specialist staff due to more employment opportunities across our Trust.

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust is the only acute hospital provider in the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (ICS), which is a system of health and care partners working together for our local population. Within Mid and South Essex there are 149 GP practices, operating from over 200 sites, forming 27 Primary Care Networks and one Ambulance Trust. There are also three main community and mental health service providers who work together through a community collaborative.

We collaborate with other valuable partners, including three Healthwatch organisations, nine voluntary and community sector organisations and three top tier local authorities, with seven district, borough and city councils, as well as our local universities.