Stroke Dietitian

Detailed job description and responsibilities Communication and working relationships To work as an integral member of the stroke MDT To communicate and establish working relationships with: Stroke Consultants, Stroke Consultant AHP, Ward Managers and Matrons Speech and Language Therapists and other therapies. Stroke MDT, rehabilitation teams, ward medical and nursing teams. Nutrition Team, Consultant Gastroenterologists and Nutrition Nurse Specialists Home Enteral Feeding (HEF) Dietitians and HEF Team Catering department Early Support Discharge (ESD) team Local Dietetic Team, including community clinical and acute teams of Dietitians Other Specialist Stroke Dietitians, locally and regionally to share best practice Students Dietetic and other professions Other health and social care professionals Planning and organisation To manage own clinical caseload as an autonomous practitioner within the stroke service To manage own time, prioritise clinical referrals and manage the demands received from different parts of the service To plan, organise and develop the dietetic service in stroke, with support from the Dietetic Team Leads, Head of Service and Stroke Teams To collate evidence to evaluate this post, for example, identifying the strengths of service provision, patient activity statistics, health outcomes and patient satisfaction (e.g. Friend and Family Tests) Actively evaluate the dietetic stroke service, identifying any areas for development, together with the other stroke Dietitian, and with support from senior members of stroke and dietetics To plan, organise, deliver and evaluate training sessions to a variety of groups including health and social care professionals and patients.

Training may be face to face or using Microsoft Teams Responsibility and accountability To be the nutritional lead in the Stroke Service to ensure patients have high quality nutritional care, together with another stroke specialist dietitian (depending on the organisation of the team) To deliver Dietetic care to a caseload of adult patients, who have had a stroke in collaboration with the MDT To provide a source of expert knowledge and advice on nutrition to the stroke service To carry out other duties as agreed with the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Clinical Community Team Lead Responsibility for patients and client care To deliver Dietetic care to a caseload of adult patients who have had a stroke/under the care of the stroke team To undertake nutritional assessments by examination and history taking. This includes calculation of nutritional requirements; interpret biochemistry results and assessing the efficacy, safety and routes of nutritional support. Assessments may be either face to face or remotely as clinically indicated To initiate appropriate Dietetic treatment and/or referral, and to signpost to other appropriate services To provide high quality, complex nutritional and dietetic individualised advice enabling patients to make informed choices about their own health To liaise closely with ward teams and catering staff to support the provision of appropriate diets, including modified consistency To provide resources such as patient information leaflets, recipes and menu plans To maintain accurate and timely documentation of patient interactions and clinical care provided To be a patient advocate and support patients following a stroke. Use behaviour change and advanced communication techniques daily To provide a source of expert knowledge and advice on nutrition to the stroke teams To have active involvement in MDT discussions and decisions around nutritional care and feeding decisions about medically, socially and ethically challenging patients.