The life of a Community Dietitian

Dietitian’s Week is 3 – 7 June, we’re taking this opportunity to celebrate our community dietitians, and to highlight some of the great and varied work that many people are not aware is supported by them.  

With GPs potentially seeing a considerable amount of people with conditions relating to diet and lifestyle, dietitians play a key role in making nutritional information accessible and practical as well as supporting a range of conditions.

There are nine Community Dietitians, as well as the support team, that work across two bases, Mansfield and Stapleford.  Cindy Woolley, gives us a flavour of life as a community dietitian in the Trust.

Monday - I’m in the office today at Stapleford to carry out some MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool) training to the Community Stroke Team.  I haven’t really done a lot of training up until now but I really enjoyed it.  Some of the session included getting the group to calculate a MUST score, by using a case study, as well as briefly talking about ‘food first’ strategies which can be passed onto patients to assist with unintentional weight loss. The rest of my day was spent catching up on telephone reviews and typing letters to GPs.

Tuesday - This morning I had an outpatient’s clinic at Daybrook Medical Centre. It’s quite a busy one with six patients booked in so I have to ensure I’m organised prior to clinic. This includes reading through the referral and making sure I have all relevant resources to hand.  I see patients for a variety of health conditions, including Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Malnutrition and Coeliac Disease to name a few. I especially like seeing a patient for IBS at the moment, as this is a condition that can dramatically impact on a person’s life.  Providing advice around symptom management can really help to improve quality of life.  After the clinic I decided to go home and write up some notes, as I have my own laptop so can be flexible with where and how I work.

Wednesday -Today my colleague Amy and I were delivering a DESMOND (Diabetes, Education, Self-Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed) session at East Leake Church Hall. The group normally consists of anything from four participants up to about 14 (including relatives/carers or friends). I started to deliver these sessions in November last year so I’m feeling a lot more confident now.  However, I still find there is so much to think about during the day, including remembering the course content, participants’ names and ensuring each section is on time.  I find this is a time when communication skills are important and a way to motivate the group and help them with self-management of their diabetes.

Thursday - This morning I arranged to visit one of my regular care homes and spend half a day sitting and observing residents with dementia. Part of my role involves visiting a lot of care homes to carry out nutritional assessments linked to malnutrition. Many of these patients have dementia where weight loss is frequently seen. Some of the reasons for weight loss can be linked to the barriers to eating; therefore, I wanted to observe for myself exactly what these barriers are to increase my knowledge and awareness in this area. I found the morning to be most interesting and it definitely gave me some practical ideas which I could recommend to other care homes.

Friday - Wow, it’s Friday again. I find my week flies by and it never drags. I love being in different places most days. Today my colleague Hayley and I presented to around 90 care home staff at the ‘Care from Head to Toe’ event at Duncan Macmillan House, along with other health care professionals.   Some of the areas we covered included MUST, food first and nutritional supplements. As we were presenting last, we tried to make the session as interactive as we could by getting participants to work together using flip chart paper and a case study.

I hope you enjoyed this brief overview of what I do during a typical week as a Community Dietitian and to highlight how varied my role is.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare's Nutrition and Dietetics team provide a service across Nottinghamshire for both children and adults and includes:

Children     
•           Children with delayed egg, soya and cow’s milk protein allergy
•           Children whose growth is faltering
•           Children with autism spectrum disorder which impacts upon eating behaviours
•           Obesity (under 5s)
Adults
•           Diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
•           Diabetes
•           Undernutrition due to poor appetite, increased needs, or weight loss
•           Delayed wound healing

Referrals can be made by either a GP or healthcare professional. For more information on our service please visit: www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/nutrition-and-dietetic-service