PRN Dietitian

American Addiction Centers • Skaneateles, NY

2d • $31 - $46 • Hybrid

About The Position

The PRN Dietitian provides daily Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) care for hospital inpatients. This role involves screening, prioritizing, assessing, and recommending interventions to manage patient nutritional needs. The dietitian adapts workflow to patient load fluctuations and develops individualized nutrition plans based on expert assessment of life cycle- and diagnosis-specific needs. This includes reviewing medical history, laboratory data, conducting patient interviews, and performing physical examinations. The role also involves prescribing and managing enteral and parenteral nutrition support, collaborating with physicians and pharmacy, and maintaining secure communication with the Pharmacy Integrated Clinical Services (PICS) team for TPN infusions. The dietitian prescribes therapeutic diets, oral nutrition supplements, and nutrition support regimens, utilizing order-writing privileges. Collaboration with Food and Nutrition patient services ensures patient intake aligns with nutrition prescriptions and interdisciplinary plans. The role also involves partnering with site patient services to identify formula substitutions during supply chain disruptions and ensuring diet restrictions, allergies, and preferences are consistent with patient needs and personal, religious, and cultural preferences. The dietitian leads efforts to identify, treat, and prevent malnutrition through Nutrition Focused Physical Examinations and communicates findings to the medical team. Education is provided to patients with moderate or severe malnutrition to improve outcomes and reduce readmission rates. The role includes documenting elements of the Global Malnutrition Composite Score (GMCS) for CMS Nutrition Electronic Quality Indicators and participating in Quality Assessment Performance Improvement (QAPI) efforts. The dietitian maintains regulatory readiness and supports department clinical initiatives. They identify and document billable nutrition diagnoses and may provide clinical support to outpatient medical destination programs, entering charges for outpatient nutrition capture. The role also involves precepting dietetic graduate students and providing nutrition orientation and lectures to medical residents. Collaboration with discharge planners, home health, physicians, pharmacy, and other interdisciplinary teams is essential for coordinating care. The dietitian participates in interdisciplinary team rounds and assists with transitions to home or outside facilities by coordinating home enteral and/or parenteral nutrition needs. Education is provided to inpatients, outpatients, and family members. The dietitian provides clinical input into system clinical nutrition initiatives and practice changes, liaising between clinical nutrition, inpatient nursing, and physicians to champion these initiatives. They may also provide clinical nutrition 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

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.
• Demonstrates extensive knowledge of specialized nutrition support (parenteral and enteral) and triages issues and concerns through collaboration with physicians and pharmacy.
• Maintains constant, secure communication with system level Pharmacy Integrated Clinical Services (PICS) team to manage and order Total Parental Nutrition (TPN) infusions for critically ill patients in the hospital.
• 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.
• Utilizes order-writing privileges to implement nutrition related orders.
• Collaborates with Food and Nutrition patient services team to ensure patient intake aligns with nutrition prescription and interdisciplinary plan of care.
• Partners with site patient services team to identify and recommend appropriate clinical nutrition formula and supplement substitutions during supply chain disruptions to reduce and eliminate significant disruptions to patient 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.
• Develops patient-specific menus for patients admitted with complex dietary needs (e.g., multiple food allergies, numerous diet restrictions, and/or low-use, high risk diet orders).
• 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.
• Communicates findings to the medical team through medical record documentation to ensure maximized reimbursement.
• 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.
• Maintains regulatory readiness.
• Supports department clinical initiatives to ensure compliance with safety initiatives, policies, and procedures, DNV regulations, and department standards.
• 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.).
• Enters charges for outpatient nutrition charge capture in electronic medical record.
• Supports partnerships with local didactic programs by precepting dietetic graduate students in clinical nutrition and/or foodservice management.
• Directs and monitors interns’ progress both daily and at designated touchpoints and provides feedback for growth and development.
• Communicates regularly with didactic program coordinator.
• 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 nutrition in-services to teammates, as applicable.
• 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.
• Partners with system patient services and clinical teams to deploy system changes and updates regarding CBORD, EPIC, menus, emergency preparedness, downtime processes, formulary, clinical procedures, and policies.
• 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.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Generous retirement offerings
• Programs that invest in your career development
• Paid Time Off programs
• Medical, dental, vision, life, and Short- and Long-Term Disability
• Flexible Spending Accounts for eligible health care and dependent care expenses
• Family benefits such as adoption assistance and paid parental leave
• Defined contribution retirement plans with employer match and other financial wellness programs
• Educational Assistance Program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Mid Level