Registered Dietitian

General Summary

• The Clinical Dietitian provides nutrition therapy to support conventional cancer treatments to help optimize immune function, improve strength, increase energy, preserve lean body cell mass, rebuild body tissue, decrease risk of infection, and help minimize breaks in treatment. This position requires a high level of patient centricity, team work, flexibility, and compassion. Clinical Dietitians may participate in community nutritional education as time and work load allows.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Implements nutrition screening system for cancer patients undergoing active treatment, assessing patient nutritional status and formulating nutrition care plans to make recommendations to physician and/or multi-disciplinary team.
• Provides nutritional education for patients, community, and staff to ensure comprehension, tailoring counseling and nutrition recommendations to patients’ specific therapies and nutrition needs.
• Collaborates with other health-care professionals to ensure nutrition screening mechanism is consistently identifying patients at risk. Provides nutrition interventions in a proactive manner that may include assessment (considering diagnosis, treatment, other co-morbidities, diet history, physical examination, laboratory data, medications, clinical symptoms, and psychosocial, cultural and educational factors affecting nutritional status), client-centered goals, appropriate follow-up and communication with interdisciplinary team members.
• Attends and contributes to multidisciplinary team patient-care rounds for DDCI cancer patients. Notifies the Director of any problems related to patient feeding, supplemental and tube feeding needs, cooperation with nursing staff and physicians, non-compliance issues and changes to regulatory codes, policies and procedures, and areas of concern regarding the well-being and care of a patient.
• Collaborates with other health professionals as appropriate and develop nutrition education and resource materials as needed and engages in performance improvement measures of the department by developing and participating in quality studies.
• Assists with the administration associated with nutritional care, compliance to regulatory agencies, and development of clinical nutrition policies and procedures.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition required.

Work Experience

• One year of clinical dietitian internship required.

Certification/License

• Licensed registered dietitian in Missouri required.

Mental/Physical Requirements

• Considerable mental concentration for sustained periods of time with frequent interruptions. Light lifting (15 lbs.) required. Sustained periods of standing, sitting and walking required. Ability to use computer, to measure and calculate, and to teach and communicate nutrition to customers.

Working Conditions

• Potential exposure to infectious or communicable diseases and bodily fluids in patient care areas. Exposure to wet floors, hot steam & water, chemicals, glass breakage, and sharp knives in food production areas. Moderate levels of noise in kitchen, crowded work areas, in patient rooms, and nursing stations.