Clinical Dietitian – Clinical Nutrition (Outpatient) – MD Anderson Cancer Center – Houston, TX

Clinical Dietitian Opportunity in Clinical Nutrition (Outpatient)

Responsible for providing nutrition care to patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Works with colleagues internally and outside the nutrition department to provide nutrition care during all stages of treatment and attain department goals.

Specific Responsibilities include:

Responsible for providing direct nutrition care to patients with complex medical conditions. This includes communicating recommendations for nutrition intervention in the medical record and on multi-disciplinary rounds, providing nutrition education to patients and health care professionals. Specific responsibilities include assessment of patient’s nutrition status, and recommending, implementing, monitoring and management of nutritional intervention. Provides clinical practice leadership to student and other member of the medical are team and participation in the development of clinical dietitians and training of interns. Provides education within the institution and in the community and participates in department quality and performance improvement initiatives/projects.

JOB SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES

Direct Patient Care

Provides quality nutrition care in relation to the patient’s diagnosis, treatment, age group, nutrition status, and other needs in both an acute care environment, and/or within the clinics as appropriate.

Provides a comprehensive assessment of nutritional status for medically complex patients by analysis of subjective data, physical assessment, consulting with other members of the care team and information retrieved from the electronic medical record.

Determines patient’s nutrient needs and develops a comprehensive plan of care by using department-established guidelines.

Work in partnership with interdisciplinary team and participates in patient care rounds by recommending, implementing, and monitoring of nutrition interventions.

Documents care in the medical record using appropriate forms and/or formats within established guidelines.

Provides initial and ongoing or follow-up care according to established timeframes and reassessment criteria.

Identifies and provides for patient and family education needs, assesses barriers to learning, provides appropriate instructions utilizing appropriate modalities, assesses patient understanding and documents interventions per policy.

Cover additional services and may cross cover inpatient/outpatient services.

Clinical Practice

Maintain high level of competency and professional development related to nutrition trends, research, policy, certifications, and standards of practice. Includes participation in staff development activities via formal and informal education.

Participates in departmental revision of resources that may include Diet Manual, Practice Guidelines, Formulary, educational resources, and Policies and Procedures when appropriate.

Semiannually provides advanced clinical nutrition practice education via case studies or rounding to other clinicians utilizing nutritionally complex patients.

Provide supervised learning experiences for new employees, students, interns, and observers within the department.

Lead or active participation in workgroups or institutional committee. Routinely attends meetings, completes assignments and turns in reports on time providing pertinent information to clinical team.