Renal Specialist Dietitian

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

This role offers the opportunity to work as a Band 6 Renal Specialist Dietitian in a very friendly and supportive renal dietetics team based at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital.

You will become a member of the renal multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and be responsible for the nutritional management of adults living with kidney disease under the care of Kent Kidney Care Centre.

As a Band 6 Renal Specialist Dietitian, your role will be to deliver care to adults living with kidney disease across East & West Kent, including in-patients at Kent & Canterbury Hospital, Home Therapies, Haemodialysis Units and Renal Out-Patient clinics (Advanced Kidney Care, General Nephrology, Transplant Clinic and community Conservative Management service).

You will provide specialist advice, education and support to patients, their family or carers and other healthcare professionals. In addition, you will be actively involved in the Trust's Clinical Governance Framework, including responsibility for continuing professional development (CPD) and audit activities within this specialist area.

No previous experience of renal dietetics is required as training will be provided.

Main duties of the job

1. Deliver a comprehensive evidence-based and person-centred renal dietetic service to adults living with kidney disease, including:
2. Deliver a comprehensive and effective regional renal nutrition service to adults living with kidney disease, including pre-dialysis, haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, conservative management and transplant patients.
3. Provide evidence-based specialist advice to people living with kidney disease, their family/carers and clinicians regarding nutritional support.
4. Undertake diet and lifestyle assessments and formulate individualised patient management and care plans. This will involve the calculation of nutritional requirements based on the interpretation of biochemistry, anthropometry, clinical condition, dialysis modality and other physical parameters.
5. Use developed communication and teaching skills to deliver education on complex nutritional information, both in a one-to-one and group setting to a varied audience.
6. Play an active role in the development, implementation and update of operational and professional standards/policies for the renal dietetic service.
7. Initiate and participate in research and audit within renal dietetics, in-line with EKHUFT/Renal research and audit procedures.
8. Participate fully in the appraisal process and develop a strategy for continuous professional development.
9. Comply with British Dietetic Association and Health Care Professions Council code of professional conduct, standards of proficiency and local policies.

About us

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

Job responsibilities

Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in Documents to download.

If you have further queries please don't hesitate to contact the line manager using the contact details below.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• 4-year BSc degree or equivalent in Nutrition and Dietetics
• HCPC registered
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• Delivery of evidence-based practice
• Demonstrate person-focused approach
• Evidence of facilitating learning in practice
• Willingness to join BDA Kidney Dietitian Specialist Group

Skills

• Effective communication, presentation, interpersonal and organisational skills
• Able to reflect and evaluate own practice
• Competent in use of IT and keyboard skills
• Clinical audit and/or research skills
• Knowledge of the nutritional care of kidney disease and its treatment

Experience

• 1-2 years dietetic experience at Band 5/6 level or equivalent
• Experience of working in a team
• Identifies issues with service delivery and seeks to address them, with support
• Previous experience at Band 5/6 level within renal speciality
• Experience of line-managing Bands 3-5 staff
• Participated in training student dietitians

Governance

• Awareness of the audit process
• Participation in the audit process

Personal & Professional Attributes

• Upholds and models the Trust values
• Car owner

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.