Community Diabetes Dietitian
Choose Well - Choose WWL
Job overview
A permanent part time vacancy has become available in for a Community Diabetes Dietitian (30 hours) working Monday to Friday.
The Nutrition & Dietetic Service within the Wigan Borough delivers dietetic care to adults for a variety of complex clinical conditions in the home and clinic setting, within the community division of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.
The post holder will manage a caseload of adults with Diabetes and manage and oversee the referrals accepted by the Community Diabetes Team. They will work autonomously and to a high standard managing a complex caseload of clients with co-morbidities and complications of Diabetes and other conditions requiring dietary management e.g. hyperlipidaemia, gestational diabetes or gastroparesis.
The post holder will deliver structured education within NICE Guidelines, acting as a specialist advisor and educator to other healthcare professionals re: Diabetes. They will work with multidisciplinary teams; liaising with dietetic colleagues and other teams as necessary.
You must have substantial Band 6 NHS experience and be able to attend clinics and patient home visits across the borough daily.
Previous applicants will not be considered unless they have significantly strengthened their application.
Main duties of the job
Across clinical pathways there is a strong focus and dedication to multidisciplinary working with both local community and acute services. The post holder will provide management and clinical supervision to colleagues, students and other employees.
Under guidance from the Team Leader the post holder will be responsible for the delivery of a comprehensive dietetic service through community clinics, home visits and within care settings. The post holder will be part of a team of dietitians and will offered support and oversee caseload management and reporting on waiting times for the service.The post holder will will support the gestational diabetes service.
The post holder will autonomously manage their clinical caseload of patients with complex needs, assessing, planning and implementing dietetic treatment. The post holder will contribute to improved service delivery by critical analysis and appraisal of current research to support evidenced based practice.
Working for our organisation
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are the proud providers of acute hospital and community services to the people of the Wigan Borough and surrounding areas. At WWL, we value our staff believing that ‘happy staff, makes for happy patients’.
WWL are committed to placing the patient at the heart of everything we do, and in the provision of safe, effective care that acknowledges and ensures dignity. With this in mind we are seeking to recruit people who share our values and beliefs.
On-Call
Please note that senior positions (AFC band 8A or above) may be expected to participate in an on-call rota, if the role is predominantly operational.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key results from the job holder
§ To work as an autonomous and clinically competent practitioner within the Community Dietetic Team assessing and giving highly specialist dietetic advice, treatment and dietary counselling to patients in consultant clinics, community clinics and client homes.
§ To undertake autonomous assessment and review for the management of complex caseload of diabetes, complications of diabetes and general clinic providing dietetic advice to adults, adolescents, carers and staff within agreed protocols / guidelines based on medical condition, social, cultural, anthropometric analysis, clinical chemistry and psychological factors.
§ To request clinical chemistry data to assess nutritional status.
§ To develop, monitor and review appropriate care plans, to meet the needs of individuals using complex numerical calculations, interpretation of clinical, biochemical and psychosocial information and analysis of nutritional intakes using specialist IT systems.
§ To provide tailored nutritional treatment plans to include carbohydrate counting education with appropriate advice for dose adjustment for normal eating and therapy to enable optimal glycaemic control to be maximised.
§ To provide diet and lifestyle advice to promote a healthy lifestyle in adults and young people with long term conditions to prevent long term complications.
§ Develop and modify dietetic treatment and discharge plans referring to other specialists and agencies as appropriate.
§ Judge the appropriateness of referrals, action dietetic management and advise referring agents of inappropriate referrals.
§ To recommend appropriate ACBS nutritional products, changes to medication, diagnostic tests and procedures and monitor their use.
§ Communicate complex nutrition and dietetic information in an understandable form to staff, clients and carers, using negotiation, motivation and counselling skills including situations where there are barriers to understanding.
§ To act as a source of expertise on nutrition and dietetic topics relating to adults with long term conditions advising and supporting qualified and unqualified healthcare staff and other agencies who are in a position to provide nutritional advice, aiming to ensure accurate and consistent advice and treatment is provided.
§ Work in conjunction with medical, nursing, professional colleagues and other agencies attending and supporting vulnerable adults in various care settings to include community clinics, home visits, multidisciplinary working and liaising with hospital wards to support prompt delivery of dietetic care.
§ Produce timely reports to referring Health Care Professionals regarding patient care.
§ To identify opportunities to promote health and using innovative methods to develop initiatives to enable the promotion of health. Maintain expertise in other areas of dietetics to ensure continuity of care.
§ To meet the standards of best practice in accordance with relevant NICE Guidelines.
§ To manage a defined caseload, working to agreed standards and protocols which reflect evidence based practice and client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions.
§ To collect and assimilate information necessary to undertake nutritional assessment and determine nutritional needs of the patient including referral to other disciplines as appropriate.
§ Assesses and interprets the medical diagnoses and changes in medical condition of individual patient and understands how this affects nutritional management.
§ To communicate effectively with patients, relatives, care staff, and health care professionals to negotiating and supporting decision making in relation to therapeutic management and evaluating outcomes.
§ To be able to adapt the communication skills within a variety of settings using various approaches including knowledge of learning theories and barriers to learning.
§ To take part in clinical supervision and seek advice around any complex situations or residents from Senior Dietitians within the Nutrition Service.
§ To provide clinical education, advice and support for Dieticians, junior therapy staff, support staff and students.
§ To supervise, educate and assess the performance of therapy students.
§ To contribute to service research and audit activities.
§ To propose any service changes within own professional speciality area.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Recognised Degree In Dietetics
- Registered with HCPC
- Evidence of CPD through maintenance of a portfolio
- Post graduate training in Diabetes education
- Diabetes Specialist Interest Group BDA
- BDA memberships
- Knowledge of other diabetes specialist interest groups and platforms
- Clinical Educators/Student Assessment Skills course or equivalent
- NHS Experience
Experience
Essential criteria- DAFNE or Equivalent training and experience
- Evidence of working in area of diabetes service
- Evidence of working within MDT
- Experience of participating in service development
- NHS experience
- EXTOD or Equivalent training
- Experience of working in pregnancy
- Experience of assessing and treating patients who do not speak English or have other barriers to communication
- Community working and working with patients in their own homes
Skills
Essential criteria- Demonstrates effective organisation and leadership skills
- Access to car for work purposes
- Good IT skills
- has excellent leadership skills
- Ability to pass on knowledge and skills to others in both formal and informal environments using a variety of teaching methods.
- Ability to analyse data and activity accurately and objectively
- Ability to command confidence of other health professionals
Additional
Essential criteria- Confident, enthusiastic and self-motivated
- Dynamic and reliable with the ability to work flexibly in accordance with service needs
- Ability to travel independently throughout north Manchester and the Trust, fulfilling the travel requirements of the post.
- Ability to undertake light physical activity in a range of healthcare settings (community clinics, home visits, carry resources and scales to sessions)
- Speak English to an appropriate standard relevant to their role, i.e. with confidence and accuracy, using correct sentence structures and vocabulary, and without hesitation
Knowledge
Essential criteria- Demonstrates good working knowledge of clinical conditions specific to role
- Evidence of current emerging evidence in diabetes
- Understanding of all Diabetes medications
- Knowledge, recognition and nutritional management of diabetes complications.
- Evidence of audit and evaluation of practice
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Recruitment Information for Candidates
Our Trust prefers candidates to submit applications online. Please contact the Recruitment Team on 01942 244000 if you have difficulty applying online.
The Trust reserves the right to close adverts earlier than the stated closing date if there is a high volume of applications.
We endeavour to inform all applicants of the outcome of their application by email or SMS text message.
Guidance on Completing Your Application
Applications are scored against the person specification, therefore we recommend that you use the supporting information section of your application form to demonstrate how you meet the essential and desirable criteria for the role, providing illustrative examples where possible.
On-Call
Please note that some roles may require you to participate in an on-call rota, if the role is predominantly operational.
Continuous Service
WWL has signed up to the Greater Manchester Continuous Service Commitment. and will recognise your continuous or ‘unbroken’ service in any Greater Manchester Local Authority or NHS organisation, Transport for Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service or Greater Manchester Combined Authority; giving you access to our service-related benefits.