Chief Clinical Dietician
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Chief Clinical Dietician
Purpose of the Job
A chief clinical office has the role of overseeing all the dietary needs of the patients to ensure that they are fed well. The main purpose why the job exists is because of the needs of patients to be well fed so that they enjoy good health that will aid in their quick recovery (Miller 1994). People usually get sick for various reasons, one of them is due to poor dieting, and unless they are supervised and guided on proper dieting habits, their recovery may not be possible. Clinical dieticians also have a role to ensure that whatever the patients are being given is not going to interfere with the medication that they are receiving. Even though they do not work directly with the patients, they work with other medical staffs to ensure that both the admitted and outpatients are well nourished.
Knowledge and Experience
For one to qualify to be a chief clinical dietician, he/she needs to be acquainted with the general food requirements of the sick people. He/she also needs to be informed about the nutritional compositions of the various food substances. Such skills are usually acquired through training and it is therefore necessary that they go through an institution that offers such training (Gottschlich 2000). The skills can also be perfected through practice and a chief clinical dietician therefore needs to be a person who has served in such junior positions for quite sometime and therefore has the necessary experience. In order for the individual to be guaranteed of performance in such a position, he/she should also have a positive report from former employees. This sensitive responsibility has to be exercised with a lot of diligence.
Principal Responsibilities
The main responsibilities of a chief clinical dietician are to supervise medical practitioners and work hand in hand with them to ensure that correct dietary measures are administered. He has the right to know what the patients are being fed on and if it is being given in the correct ratio (Winterfeldt 2005). He/she is also to ensure that the nurses and doctors are informed about the nutritional requirements of the patients by working with his/her subordinates. The chief clinical office is also supposed to be consulted by his or her subordinates on issues that pertain to diet in the area of healthcare. The chief dietician may also organize seminars in a certain area that may be at risk of a certain health issues on proper dietary measures that they can take to develop a resistance against it.
Nature and Scope
Work environment
A chief clinical dietician is required to be a social person who is willing and ready to work with his subordinates (Holli 2003). He should also be a person who can be easily approached and consulted by other medical staff who may need to be informed about the diet to be given to the patients.
Business environment
A chief clinical officer deals with an environment that keeps changing with technology. People’s lifestyles have changed largely and this has affected their eating habits, which require a chief clinical dietician to develop new advisory strategies. He/she needs to invent new approaches that will ensure that people stay healthy despite the environmental changes.
Internal and external relationships
Even though the officer mostly deals with hospitals, he/she needs to be flexible enough and attend to the needs in the external environment (Edelstein 2007). There are always patients that are released out of hospital but then required to take some dietary precautions that will aid in their health. The officer is therefore required to liaise with the community to ensure that the sick around them are well fed.
Supervisory responsibilities
A chief clinical dietician mainly supervises his/her subordinates and other healthcare officers to ensure that right procedures are taken when feeding patients. He/she is also required to lead by example by practically being involved in the work (Grossbauer 2001). As a supervisor, he/she needs to be a person of integrity and good character so that he/she receives respect from other people.
References
Edelstein S. (2007): Managing food and nutrition services: for the culinary, hospitality, and nutrition, professions. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
Grossbauer S. (2001): Managing Foodservice Operations. Iowa: Kendall Hunt.
Gottschlich M. (2000): The science and practice of nutrition support. Massachusetts: Iowa and Kendall Hunt.
Holli B. (2003): Communication and education skills for dietetics professionals. New York: XYZ.
Miller M. (1994): Total quality management for hospital nutrition services. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Winterfeldt E. (2005): Dietetics: practice and future trends. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett.