Dietetics and Nutrition

Introduction

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust’s  Nutrition and Dietetics Programme is designed to provide international visiting professionals with the opportunity to experience our highly acclaimed and well-rounded dietetic service. The programme offers visitors the chance to work within one of the leading NHS hospitals in the heart of Central London whilst gaining invaluable knowledge on a range of specialist adult and paediatric areas. 

Our expert dietitians have specifically created the programme to provide a unique development experience which enables visitors of all experience levels to learn new skills and insight.

Programme aims

The programme is designed to provide a well-rounded experience of the nutrition and dietetics service. Visitors of all experience levels are welcome to apply as the programme can be tailored to suit individual needs, however the overall programme aims will be the same for everyone. 

The programme includes:

• Direct experience and exposure of clinics and wards
• Understand the relationship between dietetics and the specialist dietary products industry
• Experience of the NHS and working in one of the largest teaching hospitals in Central London
• Gain insight into specialist dietetics in both acute and primary care settings
• The chance to explore dietetic career opportunities and to create networks and links for future development 

An opportunity to learn and demonstrate new competencies 

Format

The nutrition and dietetics programme is delivered within the hospital work place and it includes exposure to clinics, wards, and tertiary care referrals.

The programme has been designed to combine elements of observation with hands on practical experience. Visitors will be aligned with supervisors from within the team who will ensure that all of their learning and development needs and expectations are met. 

The programme gives the opportunity for participants to be totally integrated with the day to day service within our nutrition and dietetics team.

Who can apply

This programme is intended for overseas students and professionals that have an interest in pursuing a qualification or career in nutrition and dietetics. It is also an ideal programme for those that wish to extend their current knowledge or return to practice.

This programme does not require any formal qualifications. 

Programme duration

We are able to offer visiting professional programmes for periods of 8 weeks up to 12 weeks. The programme’s duration can be tailored to the specific learning requirements of those visiting the Trust. 

Nutrition and Dietetic service

The Nutrition and Dietetics Service is part of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Medical Specialities Directorate, a directorate which comprises of both clinical and non-clinical support services to provide diagnosis, treatment and continuing care to patients with long term conditions. Our dietitians are all state registered and they work in conjunction with the other hospital services to provide one-to-one counselling and training for staff on various aspects of nutrition.

The nutrition and dietetics team have specialised skills in assessing the need for dietary input and management, designing individual plans to meet individual needs, and in assessing and monitoring growth and nutrition. The team also have an input across all inpatient wards and they organise both adult and paediatric outpatient clinics. 

Dietetics have a specialist input in the following areas:

• diabetes (within Guy’s and St Thomas’ and outreach clinics)
• HIV
• oncology and haematology
• head and neck surgery
• bariatric surgery and weight management
• upper and lower GI surgery
• elderly Care and stroke
• gastroenterology
• allergy
• EB
• adult metabolic 
• general paediatrics and paediatric allergy
• neurology
• critical care 
• renal (Guy’s Hospital and outreach clinics across the south east London region).
• TPN 

The department of Nutrition and Dietetics was awarded Beacon status in 2011 for delivering care with the utmost dignity and compassion.

Routine and urgent referrals

We are a tertiary referral centre, so we accept primary care and consultant referrals. Standard referrals subjects include:

• obesity
• irritable bowel syndrome 
• low FODMAP
• cardio-protective advice
• hyperlipideamia 
• diabetes
• coeliac disease
• food allergy 
• modified consistency diets
• inflammatory bowel disease 
• cancer cachexia
• pancreatitis
• liver disease (malnutrition)
• nutritional support conditions relating to pregnancy
• anaemias

Paediatric Dietetics

We also provide a paediatric dietetic service at Evelina Children’s Hospital London, which is part of St Thomas’. The service includes diagnosis and treatment for the following areas:

• failure to thrive
• behavioural feeding problems
• iron deficiency
• nutritional rickets
• vegan/vegetarian weaning
• faddy eaters
• obesity
• autistic spectrum disorders

Fees

A course fee per week will be applied; this fee excludes accommodation and travelling expenses. To find out the fee amount please email vpp@gstt.nhs.uk.

Please note

Clinicians are able to offer bursaries or discounted placements on an individual basis. This is at the discretion of the Directorates of GSTT and does not affect the terms and conditions of the Visiting Professional Programme agreements.