Clinical Dietitian

Job Description

POSITION SUMMARY STATEMENT:

The Clinical Dietitian provides inpatient medical nutrition therapy. Their responsibilities include nutritional assessment, malnutrition diagnosing, development and implementation of nutrition care plans, monitoring and evaluation of patient response, documentation, and the provision of nutrition education to patients, medical staff, dietetic students/interns and the community.

Methodist's Clinical Dietitians are expected to practice at the top of their scope and licensure. The clinical dietitian will use their order writing privileges to place and modify diet orders, manage enteral nutrition and enteric access, and manage hospital compounded parenteral nutrition per hospital protocol.

Responsibilities also include developing improvement processes to ensure continued excellent nutrition care is provided to patients. The position reports to the Clinical Nutrition Manager and performs other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Education, Experience or Equivalent Combination:

  • Bachelor's and/or Master's degree in food and nutrition or dietetics; If RD obtained after 12/2023, a minimum of Master's degree is required.

  • Accredited supervised practice/internship in dietetics

• Licensure/ Registration/ Certification:

  • Registered Dietitian within 5 months of hire.

  • Licensed Dietitian within Minnesota within 5 months of hire.

• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

  • Knowledge of medical nutrition therapy throughout the lifespan.

  • Ability to assess nutrition status, diagnose malnutrition, and implement nutrition interventions.

  • Ability to monitor, facilitate and evaluate behavior change.

  • Knowledge of the Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics for the profession of dietetics.

  • Ability to supervise dietetic students, interns and technicians.

  • Ability to use a computer.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Education, Experience or Equivalent Combination:

  • 1+ year(s) of clinical nutrition experience

• Licensure/ Registration/ Certification:

  • Registered Dietitian on hire

  • Licensed Dietitian within Minnesota on hire

• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

  • Ability to use electronic charting system, EPIC

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

1. (25%) - Assesses the nutritional status of patients throughout the lifespan.

• Reviews and evaluates the patients' medical and nutritional history. Including: age, anthropometric data, age, medication, and labs.

• Interviews patients and/or family to discuss nutritional history.

• Considers the patients' social, cultural, economic, and psychological factors role in their nutritional status.

• Performs Nutrition Focused Physical Exam (NFPE), accurately identifying muscle and fat mass wasting on all patient assessments.

• Uses order writing privileges to order necessary labs, and/or calorie counts to complete nutrition assessment.

• Evaluates patient and/or caregiver readiness to learn and accurately identifies barriers to learning.

• Demonstrates competency to care for patients throughout the lifespan.

1. (15%) - Accurately diagnoses malnutrition status based on patient assessments.

• Uses NFPE, and assessment data to diagnose malnutrition per the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition guidelines.

• Accurately documents nutrition status, diagnosis, care plan, progress, and revisions within medical chart.

1. (25%) - Appropriately develops and implements patient tailored, evidence-based nutrition care plans.

• Uses order writing privileges to order diet modifications, nutritional supplements, snacks, and/or calorie counts.

• Recommend feeding tubes for patients throughout the lifespan, per hospital policy and procedures.

• Recommend, order, monitor and modify enteral and parenteral nutrition per hospital protocol.

• Clearly identifies goals, outcomes, education, and referral needs.

• Designs evidence-based nutrition intervention with consideration for patient diagnosis, age, culture and personal views.

• Uses effective counseling skills and written materials to facilitate behavior change.

• Develops appropriate and tailored goals with patients and/or caregivers.

• Utilizes evidence-based, standard practice guidelines when providing medical nutrition therapy.

• Communicates nutrition care plan with medical staff, nursing, and nutrition services.

1. (20%) - Maintains and evaluates the effectiveness of nutritional care, practice guidelines, and educational materials.

• Completes nutrition plans and assessments within the required time frames per nutrition policies and regulatory agencies.

• Recommends appropriate monitoring parameters to assess nutritional status, tolerance, compliance and/or response to the recommended nutrition care plan.

• Evaluates lab and other test values in relation to nutrition care plan.

• Adjusts nutrition care plan and goals according to patient progress and treatment goals.

• Refers patients for home services and community and/or government resources as appropriate.

• Communicates nutrition plan and care with outside facilities, and home care agencies/caregivers.

1. (15%) - Participates in providing quality and effective nutritional care as a part of patients' overall medical care.

• Actively participates in multidisciplinary care rounds and care conferences.

• Develops and manages education opportunities for dietetic interns, and/or other health care professionals, as assigned.

• Conducts in-services, as assigned for hospital employees, dietetic interns and/or the community to enhance understanding of medical nutrition therapy.

• Shows consideration to others by promptly returning phones call, being punctual for meetings, and being available to work with others.

• Communicates respectfully and effectively with patients, family, and colleagues.

• Follows the dietetic profession's code of ethics and standards of practice.

• Maintains professional and hospital competencies to assure excellent medical nutrition care, including continuing to meet requirements for registration and licensure.

• Participates in department and hospital quality improvement work.

• Attends and makes positive contributions at staff meetings.

• Participates and/or applies clinical research to improve quality of care.

• Manages a variety of assignments, using time effectively to meet deadlines and goals.

*Job description rankings/percentages are intended to reflect normal averages over an extended period of time and are subject to daily variances. Quality and efficiency standards should at no time be compromised to meet the average expectations expressed above. Job descriptions are subject to change to accommodate organization or department needs.

ORGANIZATIONAL EXPECTATIONS:

Values

All colleagues are expected to live our values:

Excellence: We strive for the best results and always look for ways to improve.

Compassion: We care and show empathy and respect for each person.

Partnership: We are strongest when we work together and with those we serve.

Integrity: We are open and honest, and we keep our commitments.

Additional Expectations:

• Complies with safety instructions, observe safe work practices, provides input on safety issues, and promotes a safe work environment.

• Maintains regular and timely attendance.

• Protects confidentiality.

• Demonstrates participation in and support of the organization's Corporate Integrity Program by participating in compliance-related education and training and complying with the organization's policies and procedures.

• Timely completion of all mandatory education and organizational requirements (i.e., licensure/certification, Employee Health and Wellness requirements, annual training, etc.)

POPULATION SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES:

LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY:

The Clinical Dietitians are assigned daily roles based on nursing units, where they are responsible for ensuring appropriate and adequate nutrition care is provided for all residing patients. Clinical Dietitians act as the nutrition expert within the multidisciplinary care team for all patients. Clinical dietitians also oversee the work of dietetic technicians and dietetic interns who are doing their clinical practicum rotations at Regions.

Critical Job Demands

Section 1: Place an "X' next to ONE of the terms that best describes the frequency for each of the Critical Demands.

Section 2: Place an "X" next to ONE of the terms that best describes the Strength Rating for this job classification which is expressed by one of five terms: Sedentary, Light, Medium, Heavy, and Very Heavy.

Note: During any patient handling task, if any caregiver is required to lift more than 35 lbs. of a patient's weight, assistive transfer devices should be used for the transfer.