Inpatient Pediatric Dietitian

American Addiction Centers

1d•$31 - $46•Hybrid

About The Position

The Inpatient Pediatric Dietitian provides Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) care for hospital inpatients. This role involves screening, assessing, and recommending interventions for patients, adapting workflow to manage varying patient loads and acuity. The dietitian develops and implements individualized nutrition plans based on life cycle and diagnosis-specific needs, reviewing medical history, lab data, and conducting patient interviews and physical examinations. They prescribe and manage enteral and parenteral nutrition support, collaborating with physicians and pharmacy. The role also includes prescribing therapeutic diets, oral supplements, and managing lab work. Collaboration with the Food and Nutrition patient services team ensures patient intake aligns with nutrition prescriptions and interdisciplinary plans. The dietitian develops patient-specific menus for complex dietary needs and leads efforts to identify, treat, and prevent malnutrition. They perform Nutrition Focused Physical Examinations, document findings, and provide education to patients with malnutrition. The role involves documenting elements of the Global Malnutrition Composite Score (GMCS) for quality indicators, participating in QAPI efforts, and maintaining regulatory readiness. They identify and document billable nutrition diagnoses and may provide clinical support to outpatient programs, capturing charges in the electronic medical record. Additionally, the dietitian supports local didactic programs by precepting dietetic graduate students and medical residents, providing nutrition orientation and lectures. They collaborate with discharge planners, home health, physicians, and other interdisciplinary teams to coordinate care and assist with transitions home or to other facilities. Medical nutrition therapy education is provided to patients, families, and potentially teammates. The dietitian contributes to system clinical nutrition initiatives, practice changes, and deploys system changes related to various platforms and procedures. They act as a liaison between clinical nutrition and inpatient nursing/physicians for system initiatives and may provide remote coverage to other sites as needed.

Requirements

Dietitian certification issued by the Commission of Dietetic Registration (CDR)
Dietitian (RD) registration with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Licensure by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IL only)
Certification by the Department of Safety and Professional Services (WI only)
Minimum of Bachelor's Degree (if CDR registration eligibility is obtained prior to January 1, 2024) or Minimum of Graduate Degree (master’s, practice doctorate, or doctoral) (if initial CDR registration is obtained on or after January 1, 2024)
Successful completion of Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) accredited supervised practice program.
Didactic experience in clinical nutrition from an ACEND approved program.
Advanced knowledge in clinical nutrition and Nutrition Focused Physical Exams
Ability to respond to the needs of a diverse patient population.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Excellent organization, decision-making, time management, and problem-solving skills
Must be able to sit, stand, walk, lift, squat, bend, reach above shoulders and twist frequently during the work shift.
Will occasionally be required to lift 25 pounds.
Must have functional vision, hearing, speech, and touch.
May need to travel between work sites; therefore, may have exposure to weather-related hazards.
May need to work remotely and assist other sites as needed.
Operates all equipment necessary to perform the job.

Responsibilities

Provides ongoing Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) care for entire hospital inpatient census, through screening, prioritizing, assessing, and recommending interventions.
Develops and implements a plan of care for patients based on an expert assessment of life cycle- and diagnosis-specific nutritional needs.
Prescribes enteral and parenteral nutrition support orders by assessing the patient and calculating macronutrients and/or micronutrients, fluid, and electrolytes.
Evaluates patient tolerance and effectiveness of formulas and manages initiation or modifications to enteral/parenteral regimen orders.
Prescribes orders for therapeutic diets, oral nutrition supplements, and nutrition support regimens, including vitamins/minerals, fluid management, and lab work as indicated within the scope of the Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) protocol.
Collaborates with Food and Nutrition patient services team to ensure patient intake aligns with nutrition prescription and interdisciplinary plan of care.
Partners with physicians, nursing, and nutrition patient services to ensure diet restrictions, allergy restrictions, supplement preferences and tube feedings are consistent with patient needs and personal, religious, and cultural preferences.
Leads efforts to identify, treat and prevent malnutrition.
Performs Nutrition Focused Physical Examinations of high-risk patients to evaluate the loss of specific muscles and subcutaneous body fat to determine the presence of and degree of malnutrition.
Provides medical nutrition therapy education to patients identified with moderate or severe malnutrition to improve patient outcomes and to positively impact inpatient readmission rates.
Routinely documents elements of the Global Malnutrition Composite Score (GMCS) for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Nutrition Electronic Quality Indicators.
Participates in Quality Assessment Performance Improvement (QAPI) efforts to ensure nutrition care is safe and effective for patients.
Identifies and documents billable nutrition diagnosis with supporting documentation.
May provide clinical support to various hospital-based outpatient medical destination programs (e.g., cancer center, transplant clinic, digestive health programs, bariatric, cardiac rehab, heart failure, etc.)
Supports partnerships with local didactic programs by precepting dietetic graduate students in clinical nutrition and/or foodservice management.
Precepts medical residents and provides nutrition orientation as applicable.
Provides nutrition lectures to medical residents for internal medicine, trauma, NICU/Peds, and family practice, as applicable.
Collaborates routinely with discharge planners, home health, physicians, pharmacy, and other interdisciplinary teams to address the full scope of the system-established priority points protocol for inpatient care.
Participates in interdisciplinary team rounds, meetings, and care conferences to coordinate and collaborate on nutrition goals.
Assists with transition to home or outside facilities by partnering with Care Management and/or Home Health to coordinate home enteral and/or parenteral nutrition needs.
Provides medical nutrition therapy education to patients on prescribed diet, per established priority system, to improve patient knowledge/understanding of nutrition, diet therapy and compliance on prescribed diet.
Provides clinical input into system clinical nutrition initiatives and practice changes.
Participates in system subgroups/projects, as assigned, to develop and implement evidence-based nutrition practices, clinical initiatives and/or practice changes.
Liaisons between clinical nutrition and inpatient nursing and physicians to champion system clinical nutrition initiatives (e.g., new dysphagia standards, malnutrition coding practice changes, enteral nutrition equipment changes, malnutrition nurse screening changes, safety protocol changes, etc.)
Assists (via in-person or remote coverage) other sites throughout the State, as needed, to provide clinical nutrition coverage to assure equitable patient care.