Community Nutrition Support Dietitian

To be professionally and legally accountable and responsible for all aspects of your own work. To work autonomously to provide specialist/expert dietary advice to patients carers, nurses, clinicians and other health professionals/agencies within and across Trusts regarding nutrition To be responsible for selecting and authorising/prescribing nutritional sip feeds and enteral feeds for patients and recommend products not included in the dietetic authorisation list for prescription by GPs and medical staff. To monitor stock is maintained at adequate levels in nursing homes in your care and that all products are used appropriately. To communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with patients from a wide range of backgrounds, carers and families, tailored to their needs, to gain consent, ensure understanding of condition, treatment options, risks, acceptance and compliance with dietary treatment, which may include unwelcome or difficult to accept information e.g. life time adherence to a artificial diet or limitations of treatment in terminal illness. To apply developed communication, negotiation and counselling skills to empower patients to achieve long term lifestyle and behavioural changes taking into account emotional, physical, social and psychological barriers as well as strong influences on change e.g. depression, dementia, language difficulties, resistant attitudes, aggression, behavioural problems, mental illness. To effectively use interpreters, sign language, Information Technology or other means of communication appropriate to the clients requirements To be an expert source of information and advice to patients/carers and nursing staff on the use of artificial feeding and feeding equipment. To discuss complex ethical issues with service users and health professionals e.g. whether to continue feeding or not To promote and ensure multi-disciplinary/multi-agency collaborative working to promote continuity of care. To initiate and attend multi-disciplinary team meetings and family meetings. To provide timely and informative patient progress reports/discharge summaries to secondary, primary care and local authority/social services. To refer to other health professionals/social services when appropriate. To network and work in partnership with other disciplines/agencies e.g. public health department, prescribing leads, nurse leads, falls service to support prevention as well as treatment To keep contemporaneous, accurate and comprehensive notes and records for each patient. To collect agreed statistical information in accordance with Trust and Dietetic Team standards.