Highly Specialist Medical Gastroenterology Dietitian

Posting date:	18 July 2025
Salary:	£46,148.00 to £52,809.00 per year
Additional salary information:	£46148.00 - £52809.00 a year
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	10 August 2025
Location:	Torquay, TQ2 7AA
Company:	NHS Jobs
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	C9388-25-0909

Summary

Communication and working relationships To work as the lead dietetic member of the medical gastroenterology MDT To communicate and establish working relationships with: o Gastroenterology consultants, ward managers and matrons o Allied health professionals o Gastroenterology MDT, rehabilitation teams, ward medical and nursing teams o Nutrition team and nutrition nurse specialists o Home Enteral Feeding (HEF) Dietitians and HEF Team o Catering department o Local dietetic team, including acute teams of dietitians, community dietitians, diabetes dietitians, Primary Care Network (PCN) dietitians o Other medical gastroenterology dietitians, locally and regionally to share best practice o Students dietetic and other professions o Other health and social care professionals Planning and organisation To manage own clinical caseload as an autonomous practitioner within the medical gastroenterology service To manage own time, prioritise clinical referrals and manage the demands received from different parts of the service To lead on development of new gastroenterology dietetic services, including planning, organisation and implementation. To collate evidence to evaluate gastroenterology dietetic services, 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 medical gastroenterology service, identifying any areas for development, together with support from senior members of medical gastroenterology and dietetic teams 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 via virtual platforms. Responsibility and accountability To be the nutritional lead for development of dietetic services in the medical gastroenterology team. To deliver dietetic care to a caseload of complex adult patients in collaboration with the gastroenterology MDT and other MDTs as required To provide a source of expert knowledge and advice on nutrition to the gastroenterology service and other gastroenterology dietitians. To carry out other duties as agreed with the Head of Nutrition and Dietetics Responsibility for patients and client care To lead provision of evidence-based, individualised, disease specific and often complex dietary/nutritional treatment plans for medical gastroenterology patients with, appropriate review and evaluation of these plans To undertake nutritional assessments, which may be either face to face or remotely as clinically indicated To measure and interpret individual patients nutritional status based on weight, height, body mass index, nutritional intake, biochemistry, and clinical presentation/condition To calculate disease specific nutritional requirements for patients, using knowledge and evidence-based practice To assess the efficacy, safety and appropriateness of nutritional support routes To be responsible for reviewing, monitoring and making appropriate clinical changes to each patients dietetic care plan based on medical, emotional, ethical and social developments in addition to multidisciplinary decisions on the patients care To use behaviour change and advanced communication techniques to support and aid compliance with recommended dietary/nutritional treatment plans To explain treatment plans (verbal and or written) in an easily understandable way to patients, carers and relatives and other relevant individuals, to enable patients to make informed choices about their own health To provide resources such as patient information leaflets, recipes and menu plans and to signpost them to other resources where appropriate (e.g. NHS patient webinars, relevant charities and support groups). To provide dietetic care, both practical and empathetic, for people requiring long-term nutrition support or long-term dietary changes (including those who may be in the end stages of their life) with gastroenterology diagnoses To be pro-active in initiating appropriate dietetic treatment and/or referral, and to signpost to other appropriate services To advise on commencing enteral nutrition (either orally or by way of a variety of tube feeding routes dependent on gut anatomy and function) and transitioning between routes To request, review and interpret blood biochemistry results to monitor the safety and efficacy of nutritional support, and make clinical changes where necessary To understand and be fully aware of the range of oral nutrition support products, enteral tube feeds and associated equipment To be responsible for recommending nutritional supplements To recommend nutritional supplements for prescription (e.g. from GP, or hospital doctors where appropriate) To be a key member of relevant MDTs providing a source of expert knowledge and advice on nutrition, being actively involved in MDT discussions (inpatient and outpatient settings) and decisions around nutritional care and feeding for patients, including medically, socially and ethically challenging situations (e.g. decision making around feeding/tube feeding, patients lacking mental capacity or being treated under the Mental Health Act, end of life care, best interest meetings and safeguarding). To ensure safe and timely discharge of tube fed patients from hospital to home, with the support of the nutrition team, ward staff and home enteral feeding team including monitoring of high-risk patients (e.g. those being fed post-pylorically or with complex gastrointestinal needs) on home enteral feeding in the community To advise off script enteral tube feeds for home use To maintain accurate and timely documentation of patient interactions and clinical care provided in line with record keeping standards To be aware of, identify and raise safeguarding issues observed during clinical practice To provide support where quality or safeguarding issues have been identified Policy and service responsibility To lead the development of policies, resources and guidelines relevant to this role, with the support from gastroenterology To develop resources such as patient information leaflets, recipes and menu plans To contribute to the wider service development of the dietetic service To follow Trust policies and procedures To undertake clinical practice in line with local policy and guidelines, such as refeeding, enteral feeding and nutrition screening To relate clinical practice to broader clinical guidelines, including NICE To promote the role and value of the Dietitian in all aspects of nutritional care To attend other relevant team meetings which may include gastroenterology management meetings and dietetic meetings Responsibility for finance, equipment and other resources The post carries no budgetary responsibility To take anthropometric measurements to assess nutritional status, including the use of weighing scales, calipers, grip strength during patient assessments To promote the clinical and cost-effective use of oral nutritional supplements, for example, when inpatients are discharged from hospital into the community Responsibility for supervision, leadership and management To provide nutrition expertise within the gastroenterology teams To provide clinical support and supervision to dietitians to include monthly 121s and annual achievement reviews To participate in the training of dietitians, student dietitians and students of other professions To provide cover for specialist dietitians (with appropriate training) during periods of leave To actively support own wellbeing, as well as to support the wellbeing of the other members of the team Information technology and administrative duties To use Trust IT systems To accurately record own Dietetic activity using computerised statistics and to collate this data for service evaluation and development purposes To use Attend Anywhere or equivalent for patient assessments, when clinically appropriate To prepare own presentations, reports, and documents Maintain clinical records including Dietetic records and GP letters and in line with professional and department standards. Use electronic patient records where available To work within the requirements of Data protection legislation and access to health records To communicate via email, social media and other internal IT systems To use Microsoft Teams to attend meetings and deliver training virtually, and virtual patient education groups (e.g. IBS) Use IT to project manage and collect data for service evaluation Responsibility for research and development To be responsible for own and gastroenterology dietetic services continued professional development and be proactive within annual Achievement Reviews and monthly 121s To maintain and improve professional knowledge through CPD (continued professional development), for example, journal review, shadowing, attendance at courses/conferences/webinars as agreed with the Team and the wider dietetic department To liaise with other specialist dietitians To work within the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and the BDA (British Dietetic Association) Code of Professional Conduct To proactively identify and lead project work to develop the service to provide high quality nutritional care to patients Produce reports/summaries to monitor, evaluate and provide feedback about the service To identify and lead relevant audit and research projects to evaluate nutritional care