Dietetic Assistant

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work within the Dietetic team at Colchester Hospital across both adult and paediatric services in this new shared role as a Dietetic Assistant (Band 3).

The post involves working with the Adult and Paediatric Dietitians to provide a service to patients either face to face, by telephone under supervision of the dietitian. There is also an administrative element to the role which includes maintaining the home enteral nutrition database, liaising with home enteral feed company, writing letters and prescriptions requests on behalf of the dietitian to ensure timely provision of information to relevant staff and to patients. The role includes providing telephone support to families, which may include reviews of dietetic plans.

To support the provision of a dietetic service to patients under the care of the dietetic team. This may include telephone reviews, sending prescription requests and answering parent queries with the supervision of a paediatric dietitian as well as working face to face with patients as directed by the dietitian.

To provide an administrative function to the dietetic team, including typing letters, directing appointment queries and supporting with outpatient administrative duties.

To be aware of barriers to effective communication e.g. anxiety, disruptive environment, competing demands for attention.

To communicate effectively with patients, parents, carers and other health professionals using appropriate communication styles to ensure advice given is easily understood.

To communicate patient-related information effectively to the dietitian responsible for their care

To work in accordance with the standards set by the British Dietetic Association and the Health Professions Council

One of the largest Trust’s in East Anglia, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust provide hospital and community health services to people living across a wide geographical area. We deliver care from two main hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, six community hospitals and in patients’ own homes. You will be joining a team of almost 12,000 amazing colleagues providing care to approximately a million people.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (if applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a range of services including mental health support. We offer a range of flexible working opportunities.

Our philosophy is thatTime Mattersto everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which do not work or cause time delays for our staff and patients.

To support our employees to achieve their career aspirations you may be eligible to obtain a qualification via an apprenticeship. All successful applicants will be required to undertake a skills review to facilitate this. For full details please see the attached Apprenticeship Handbook.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge then we are keen to hear from you.

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.