CASE STUDIES - World Diabetes Day
Katherine Jones
Nutrition and Dietetic Services Manager
Airedale General Hospital
Dietitians learn about people’s nutritional needs and the foods needed to stay healthy. We also advise people how to change their diets to treat diseases. To be good dietitian, you’ll need great communication skills and to be able to work with individuals and groups. Being able to translate scientific information everyone can understand is also important.
I qualified 21 years ago and love the variety of the job. Each patient is unique and a new challenge. Currently, I work one day a week with patients and the rest of the time is spent managing the service, supporting staff and training students. In respect of direct patient care, I work in health centres and see patients who are referred to me by their GP or consultant. Many have diabetes and need to lose weight, but some need to gain weight because of surgery or cancer.
The best time in the job is when patients are interested in improving their health and ready to discuss dietary changes. It is also very satisfying when senior managers agree to fund new service developments to help people improve their diets that we know are needed.
The biggest challenge in tackling diabetes is reducing obesity and the number of people who are overweight. If we could achieve this, the numbers of people with diabetes would dramatically reduce but it requires action from across the public sector, not just the NHS, and the Government. A career in the NHS can be very hard work at times, but overall it is a very good organisation to work for. Its immensely satisfying to work with people where you are helping them with one of the most important things in their life - their health.
Paul McArdle
Clinical Lead Dietitian
Birmingham East and North PCT
I meet patients about twice a week, usually connected with my specialism - diabetes. As well as meeting patients on heir own, I also meet them in partnership with a senior diabetes nurse. Patients might be newly diagnosed or their condition may not be controlled for one reason or another. My aims are always to inform people about their condition and enable them to take control of it by managing the types of things they eat and drink along with their activity level.
When I see a newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patient, I’ll give them advice as part of a wider education they'll receive. This is aimed at self-management of the disease. Often aimed at weight reduction - 80% of type 2 diabetes patients are overweight. I'll talk to them about the importance of regular meals and eating something 'starchy' - like potatoes, rice, pasta and chapatti. They should include at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, and 'oily' fish such as salmon, mackerel, sardines or trout once or twice a week to protect from heart disease and stroke. We don't recommend 'diabetic' foods, we focus on healthy eating - a diet low in fat, sugar and salt, but not necessarily fat-free nor sugar-free.
The diabetes community team is much bigger than the dietetics team. In the full team there is a diabetes nurse consultant, a diabetes specialist nurse, a diabetologist, a link worker and a podiatrist, as well as myself.
In my view, empowering patients is still the biggest challenge in tackling diabetes. So few patients are truly empowered and therefore aren’t in the driving seat when it comes to their care. Working with patients who are empowered is probably the most rewarding part of my role, not least because it keeps me on my toes!
