Registered Dietitian, Nutrition, Per Diem

Overview

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Hours: Per Diem

 

Under the supervision of Director of Nutrition provides medical nutrition therapy services in the form of nutrition assessment, diet therapy, and nutrition counseling as appropriate to meet the patient’s nutritional needs. Participates with the health care team in the total management of the patient.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

• Conducts interactions with everyone in a friendly, courteous and respectful manner.
• Goes out of his/her way to offer assistance to others. If he/she cannot offer assistance, then finds someone who can.
• Advocates to ensure privacy and confidentiality while helping others to maintain awareness.
• Maintains a clean and safe hospital.
• Responds appropriately and immediately in emergency situations.
• Maintains a safe and healthy environment for patients, visitors, and/or staff to provide the highest level of physical comfort, and minimize risk and injury.
• Ensures compliance with regulations to maintain accreditation and licensure.
• Complies with the Hospital Attendance and Tardiness Policy.
• Completed all Hospital and Department Specific Mandatory requirements in the prior calendar year.
• Reports Incidents in a timely and effective manner.
• All employees with direct patient contact are responsible for actively engaging in the practice of, monitoring and enforcing compliance to hand hygiene.
• Oversees and maintains screening procedures for patients at nutritional risk by providing assistance for diet office staff, when needed, to ensure patients at nutritional risk are identified and provided appropriate intervention prior to discharge.
• Assesses all patients at high levels of nutritional risk within department standard time frames and assures that all pertinent care planning and therapeutic interventions are implemented and documented in the medical record; communicates any additional medical order needs to the physician immediately upon completion of assessment.
• Provides appropriate nutrition education, specific to age, readiness to learn, cultural diversity, economic status and makes appropriate referrals for additional support. e.g. outpatient individual in group sessions, nutrition or exercise classes, additional OP nutrition visits.
• Evaluates and validates the effectiveness of the patient teaching to optimize long-term adherence and therapeutic outcomes.
• Evaluates the special needs of patient (i.e. those with allergies, swallowing problems) and provides appropriate assistance to patients and staff in order to ensure optimal patient safety and effectiveness of all therapeutic interventions.
• Prepares the patient to accept a level of responsibility for his or her own care.
• Prioritizes, reprioritizes, and modifies the plan of care based upon patient assessment and patient condition.
• Documents and provides nutritional recommendations within 24 hours of consult on all patients on enteral and parenteral feedings.
• Obtains relevant clinical data from healthcare team members prior to making recommendations.
• Completes all clinical documentation within 24 hours and assures all relevant documentation is forwarded to appropriate services to implement follow up plans and avoid delays in billing.
• Assesses nutritional diagnosis and risk factors to support maximization of organization’s reimbursement efforts by identifying and documenting co-morbid conditions and providing appropriate care planning.
• Communicates with the physician by attaching a sticker to the physician’s order sheet to verify the diagnosis and care plan goals/interventions.
• Participates in community health projects as a speaker and/or resource to support preventative health efforts and nutrition awareness in the community.
• Acts as a resource for the community to validate nutritional information, for example newspaper articles and individuals who call in.
• Maintains required credentials with the American Dietetic Association, while maintaining a five year plan for professional development.
• Utilizes on going education to help improve departmental outcomes and practice advancements, so that specific disease management outcomes are improved, and all regulatory standards are met.
• Identifies variations from expected findings and understands the significance for such variations.
• Takes appropriate actions when variations are identified.
• Identifies situations when it is appropriate to involve the family and/or significant other, and/or friends in patient’s readiness to learn.
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