Diet Technician

**Job Description**:
The Allied Health Services (AHS) team, under Professional Practice consists of Regulated Healthcare Professionals including: Nursing, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Language Pathology, Social Work, Registered Dietitians, as well as unregulated Rehabilitation Assistants and Diet Technicians. Each discipline is focused on driving evidence informed practice to promote high quality patient and family centered care.

The team has a professional practice leader (PPL) model for each regulated allied health discipline which promotes and enhances the interprofessional team. Each discipline has their own PPL with dedicated time to enhance their communities of practice, represent their respective disciplines at committees, create policies & procedures and lead corporate level initiatives.

We are currently seeking a **permanent full-time** **Diet Technician** to join our acute inpatient team.

**Education**:

- Graduate of a CSNM accredited Food and Nutrition Management program or four year undergraduate degree in nutrition from a university recognized in dietetics - _Mandatory_
- Membership with the Canadian Society for Nutrition Management (CSNM) - _Mandatory_

**Experience**:

- Previous experience in a hospital setting as a Diet Technician preferred
- Experience providing patient care and/or education to patients and families

**Duties and Responsibilities**:

- Visit inpatients to perform and document nutritional screening and other nutrition based interventions such as nutrition preferences
- Prioritize caseload based on nutrition risk, acuity and urgency using clinical standards of care and clinical priority matrix
- Integrates nutrition needs and/or preferences into therapeutic diets
- Collects and records nutritional data via meal observations and other means to support nutrition assessment and monitoring of inpatient nutrition intake and status
- Provides nutrition care to low and moderate risk patients as assigned by RD
- Performs inpatient education for patients at low or moderate nutrition risk as assigned by the RD
- Performs weekly rescreening for inpatients and refers to RD for those identified at risk
- Liaises with patient food services to implement patient preferences and customized meal plans
- Liaises with unit RDs and supports malnutrition awareness and education for Interprofessional clinical care teams, patients, families and volunteers
- Liaises with nursing units, SLPs and other Interprofessional staff on behalf of the RD service
- Participate in education of dietetic interns or other allied health students as requested
- Performs other duties as assigned by RD and manager

**Competencies**:

- Ability to function co-operatively as part of an interprofessional treatment team.
- Possess comprehensive assessment, treatment, and documentation skills
- Possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- Demonstrate sound clinical judgment, flexibility and initiative
- Ability to communicate effectively with families, caregivers, and other professionals.
- Superior organizational and time management skills are essential to management of the caseload.
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills
- Working knowledge of computer systems - Microsoft office, excel, electronic medical records
- Proven ability to work with minimum supervision
- Proven organization and time management skills
- Proven ability to be flexible and adaptable
- Critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Proven ability to manage competing priorities and
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively as a team member
- Excellent attendance record

**Other**:

- Ability to learn about, from, and with other members of the patient care team to foster a strong interprofessional model of care.
- Demonstrate an ability to appreciate the importance of, and be open to, new concepts and trends in the academic and clinical areas of health care knowledge.