Dietetic Support Worker - Home Enteral Feeding and Clinical Community
Job Description
Job summary
We are looking for a Dietetic Support Worker to join our team on a permanent 22.5 hour contract working alongside the Community Clinical Dietitians to support patients living in Torbay and South Devon. A proportion of your time will be spent in rural areas, so you must be able to travel independently and have access to a car on a daily basis.
Our clinical team provides a dietetic service and nutritional care to patients in their own homes, care homes, and other community settings. Patients may require nutritional support either orally or via feeding tubes (Home Enteral Feeding), including frail and older individuals with multiple long-term conditions. The HEF service covers both adults and children.
We are also open to considering a Band 3 developmental role, starting at the bottom of our NHS agenda for change Band 2 scale and progressing to the bottom of Band 3 once qualifications and competencies are met over a 12-month period.
If applying for the Band 3 developmental role, please be aware you must be willing to enrol and complete the essential qualifications and competencies required as identified in the person specification.
We welcome you to call us for an informal chat to discuss your career pathway with us!
Main duties of the job
The role involves supporting the day-to-day care of patients in the community who are tube-fed or at risk of malnutrition, such as those experiencing unintentional weight loss or poor food intake.
The adult caseload includes housebound patients and those living in care homes, with a wide range of clinical conditions including dementia, frailty, pressure damage, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), stroke, Motor Neurone Disease (MND), neurological issues, learning disabilities, and more.
Additionally, you will provide administrative support to the team of Community Clinical Dietitians and assist with coordinating patient referrals received by the team.
You will be a highly valued member of the team, passionate about patient care, with excellent communication and administration skills. Due to the nature of the role, you will need to work flexibly to support patients and collaborate with colleagues within the team.
About us
Why Work With Us
Our team is part of the wider dietetic service at Torbay, which includes over 40 staff members across Acute, Diabetes, Paediatrics, Lifestyles, and Cancer Services, and is actively involved in training student Dietitians from Plymouth University.
You will be supervised and supported by the HEF and Community Clinical Dietitians, as well as the Clinical Community Dietetic Team Lead, and is based at Torbay Hospital, where our friendly, supportive, and professional team works across various community locations, including schools and care homes.
Job responsibilities
- To provide administrative, clinical and project management support to the HEF and Community Dietitians.
- To manage own caseload of selected patients with nutritional care plans and feeding regimens with support and supervision from the Dietitians.
- To co-ordinate patient referrals to the community clinical team. These are received through a number of routes, including via team email and post
- To register and upload referrals which are triaged by Dietitians, and maintain up to date patient electronic notes using SystmOne
- To communicate and liase with referrers about individual patients
- To plan and organise own workload efficiently and to highlight any concerns to the Team Lead/ Head of Service.
- To manage own time and organise diary, including agile working.
- To organise meetings include the collation and distribution of agendas, taking and transcribing formal minutes, and room bookings.
- To manage team diaries and appointments including meetings with outside nutrition company representative
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- NVQ level 3 education or equivalent (Must be willing to work towards these qualifications and complete in the first 12 months, if applying as band 3 development post)
- Good standard of education to include GCSE or equivalent in Maths and English
Desirable
- Health care or science subjects
- Current Food Hygiene Level 2 certificate
- Relevant IT qualifications
- Medical terminology qualification
Knowledge and experience
Essential
- Experience of dealing with the public, older people, care homes or care environment
- Proven administrative experience
- Ability to work autonomously
- Proficient in the use of Internet/Intranet and email
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office software
- Able to communicate effectively with patients/care homes, all grades of staff and external contacts, both verbally and in writing
Desirable
- Teaching qualifications
- Some knowledge/experience working with NHS systems
- Experience of working with HEF and/or nutrition support
- Teaching qualifications
- Knowledge of Trust policies and procedures
Specific skills
Essential
- Excellent communication skills at all levels
- Highly organised and good time management
- Good team working skills
Desirable
- Teaching and presenting skills
Requirements due to work
Essential
- oAbility to travel independently to various locations in the community on a daily basis
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.
Employer details
Employer name
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Torbay Hospital
Lowes Bridge
Torquay
TQ2 7AA
