Job summary

Are you an enthusiastic, motivated Dietitian with a keen interest in leading the Childrens Allergy Dietetic Service? Do you have a passion for supporting children and their families and carers, working collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team? We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Dietitian to join our Childrens Dietetic Team to take up this exciting post, working 30 hours per week ( You will provide a proactive and coordinated nutrition and dietetic service to both in- and out-patients.

Leeds Paediatric Allergy service is one of the largest in the country currently providing a secondary and tertiary allergy service to children of Leeds and Yorkshire. The large multidisciplinary team includes four paediatric allergy consultants, a specialty doctor, 5 allergy nurse specialists, 5 allergy dietitians and clinical psychologist. The service supports children with IgE and non-IgE mediated food allergy, allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, drug allergy, venom allergy, chronic spontaneous urticaria and complex multisystem allergic disease.

Main duties of the job

Provide advanced, highly specialised dietetic care to children and their families and carers at a local and regional level. This will include our in-patient and out-patient services. Provide and lead aspects of clinical training for dietetic learners and other staff. Support the Childrens Clinical Dietetic Manager with the day-to-day running of the team, with leadership and line management roles. Lead and co-ordinate dietetic research and audit within Children's Allergy Team. You will be involved in service development within the Yorkshire & Humber Paediatric Allergy Group.

About us

We are currently 29 full and part time Childrens Dietitians, providing a wide range of secondary and tertiary care, and supra-regional services based at the Leeds Childrens Hospital. We are part of the wider Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Nutrition and Dietetic Service. You will be expected to provide cover for colleagues within the multi-specialty Childrens dietetic team at times of annual leave or sickness. We will support you with appropriate training opportunities to facilitate this. You will be fully involved in student training, contributing to the provision of training programmes for A, B and C placement learners. Our team has excellent support from four dietetic assistants and the admin team. You will have access to IT and library facilities.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Job description

Job responsibilities

JOB PURPOSE

Provide advanced, highly specialised dietetic care to patients at local and regional level. This will include advice to patients and all healthcare staff. Provide and lead aspects of clinical training of dietetic students. Support Clinical dietetic Manager in co-ordinating activities of the team and providing support and supervision to staff. Lead in research and audit within specialised clinical area and disseminate findings.

3. JOB DIMENSIONS

The post holder will:

Lead in a clinical specialist area.

Manage own caseload and supervise the caseloads of the other dietetic staff.

Assist and support the Clinical Dietetic Manager/line manager in the day to day management of the team of dietitians and students.

Deliver and supervise training to healthcare staff, dietitians and students at local and regional level, acting as a resource in the specialist area.

Be a core member of the multidisciplinary care team, liaising with other members of the team to provide integrated dietetic care.

Initiate and co-ordinate research and audit projects within specialised area and disseminate findings at conference level.

Be an active member of the out of hours service.

5. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

BSc (Hons) Nutrition & Dietetics or equivalent

HCPC Registration as a Dietitian.

Experience of working in a senior dietetic role.

Willing to undergo any training as required to enable performance in the job.

Advanced knowledge of current issues in clinical specialist area.

Able to work within a team, demonstrating leadership, initiative and confidence.

Good written, oral and interpersonal communication skills.

Able to demonstrate excellent time management and organisational skills.

Proactive in day to day clinical and non-clinical management.

Good presentation skills in delivering training to large multidisciplinary groups of staff or members of the public. (this may involve groups of more than 50 people).

6. THE LEEDS WAY VALUES

Our values are part of what make us different from other trusts, so we see this as a strength, as well as a responsibility. They have been developed by our staff and set out what they see as important to how we work. Our five values are:

Patient-centered

Collaborative

Fair

Accountable

Empowered

All our actions and endeavours will be guided and evaluated through these values

Additionally the following are core values which relate specifically to this post:

The beliefs and attitudes that underpin effective performance within the job role. Emphasis should be on the requirements of the role not the individual when completing this section. Examples might include: quality focus, mistakes are used as a continual learning experience, honesty, integrity etc.

7. WEST YORKSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF ACUTE TRUSTS (WYAAT)

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is part of the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT), a collaborative of the NHS hospital trusts from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate working together to provide the best possible care for our patients.

By bringing together the wide range of skills and expertise across West Yorkshire and Harrogate we are working differently, innovating and driving forward change to deliver the highest quality care. By working for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust this is your opportunity to be a part of that change.

WYAAT is the acute sector arm of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, one of the largest integrated care systems in the country. The Partnerships ambition is for everyone to have the best possible health and wellbeing, and the work of WYAAT, and each individual trust, supports that ambition

8. CORE BEHAVIOURS AND SKILLS

Demonstrate excellent office practice in accordance with departmental policies and procedures.

Be a pro-active team member of the of the Dietetic department at LTHT by participating in departmental development projects, attending and participating in department meetings and clinical updates.

Demonstrate the ability to communicate highly complex specialised and sensitive information with empathy and understanding.

Demonstrate the ability to provide highly complex nutrition counselling to patients, requiring cognitive behaviour therapy skills to overcome barriers to change.

Demonstrate the ability to analyse, investigate and assess highly complex clinical and non-clinical information to form accurate nutrition care plans in highly complex and specialist area.

Demonstrate analytical skills in prioritising the best course of dietetic treatment in patients with highly complex clinical conditions, where nutritional goals may conflict with other on-going physical, emotional, psychological and medical problems and a range of treatment options must be assessed and considered.

Be a recognised resource in a specialist clinical area at a regional level.

9. CORE KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

Ability to perform advanced nutritional assessments in respective clinical area, interpret and plan relevant dietetic care programmes for patients with highly complex nutritional and medical needs which requires judgement and consideration of a range of treatment options.

Advanced knowledge of biochemistry, physiology and specialised pharmacology.

Understanding of the calculations required in dietetic assessment.

Ability to correctly interpret complex nutritional impairments, biochemical parameters and fluid balance. This wills involve nutritional diagnosis including interpretation of biochemistry, anthropometrics, clinical condition, social factors and diet histories in patients with highly specialised and complex nutritional needs.

Highly specialist knowledge in interpreting complex clinical information to develop and monitor nutritional care plans in a specialised dietetic area. This will include the prescription of dietary treatment, prescribable nutritional products, enteral and total parenteral nutrition (TPN).

Responsible for safe discharge planning, including co-ordination of discharge of patients on home enteral feeding.

Able to evaluate, develop and implement practice using evidence based practice and critical appraisal.

Ability to advise and suggest nutrition-related medications.

Knowledge of clinical governance, quality of care and evidence based practice in specialist area.

Awareness of national guidance and driving factors in specialist area.

10. PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical and professional

Be an autonomous practitioner, clinically, legally and professionally responsible for own caseload.

Responsible for undertaking dietetic clinical duties in specialised clinical area, managing and prioritising own clinical caseload.

Collect analyse and record relevant patient information from clinical and patient sources to develop effective nutritional care plans.

Communicate complex dietetic treatment and advice of patients to healthcare staff, professionals and patient carers. This will involve co-ordinating nutritional care with other Trusts and regional centres.

Undertake advanced assessments of patients with diverse and highly complex nutritional issues where investigative and analytical skills are required to formulate accurate treatment plans.

Responsible for providing highly specialised dietary advice within an in-patient and out-patient setting, to patients in a distinct specialist area. Eg advice to renal dialysis patient on calcium and phosphate management, oncology patients on enteral feeding, cystic fibrosis patient on fat intake and enzyme replacement therapy.

Responsible for developing and maintaining own expertise and agreed level of expertise of team members by updating own specialised clinical knowledge and skills. This will include developing regional networks within the specialist and attending local, regional and national professional interest group meetings.

Participate in the appraisal process as an appraiser and appraise, developing a strategy for personal and continuous professional interest group meetings.

Responsible for implementing clinical governance and risk assessment in respective specialised clinical area as part of continuing quality improvement advise patients and staff on infection control issues around enteral feeding.

Undertake research and audit within specialist area using research methodology. This wills involve identifying, co-ordinating and evaluating research and audit projects to measure clinical effectiveness and promote evidence based practice.

Expectation to attend regional and national conferences as a delegate and presenter. This will include both verbal and poster presentations.

Undertake any other duties appropriate to the grade as requested by line manager.

Education and training

Devise and implement specialised nutritional care plans for inpatients and outpatients by interpreting national guidelines, standards and National Service Frameworks for use in specialist area. This will involve advising patients, relatives or carers, individually or in a group setting.

effective oral and written specialised dietetic advice and information to patients, and their carers, to enable achievement of dietary aims.

Lead the development of resources used in the education and training of patients, health professionals and the public at local and regional level.

Provide postgraduate training on a range of subjects within specialist area to multidisciplinary groups and audiences at local and regional level.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

BSc (Hons) Nutrition & Dietetics or equivalent Registered for Diploma of Advanced Dietetic Practice, Masters module(s), or equivalent experience as demonstrated through portfolio. HCPC registration

Desirable

BDA membership Attendance at BDA accredited course in clinical specialist area.

Experience

Essential

Experience of working as a Dietitian at a senior level including paediatric experience Understanding of current issues in Nutrition and Dietetics. Demonstrate understanding of a paediatric specialist dietetic area. Evidence of clinical supervision, attendance of Clinical Supervisory Skills Course or equivalent Evidence of Audits or research projects undertaken. Good understanding of Clinical governance, risk assessment and continuing quality improvement. Experience of delivering education and training.

Desirable

Attendance on Leadership Skills Course

Other criteria

Essential

Good written and oral communication skills Good interpersonal skills Knowledge of dietary analysis programmes. Excellent organisational skills Problem solving skills Analytical skills Advanced counselling skills Knowledge of Microsoft Office Knowledge of statistics software (SPSS, Mini-tab)

Skills & Behaviours

Essential

Able to work / manage a team, demonstrating time management skills and initiative. Self-motivated and able to motivate staff and patients. Committed to personal and professional development. Confident and caring approach. Innovative and willing to exchange, develop and implement ideas. Proactive within own team and wider multidisciplinary team

Desirable

Portfolio of evidence of commitment to CPD