Creating a new language amongst staff

Dietitians from across Hunter New England Health will meet at Maitland this week to discuss a new language they plan to adopt across the Area.

The standardised language, including the nutrition diagnosis process, will be used amongst all dietetic health professionals in the Area. The new process will make communication between different health professionals quicker and more efficient for the patient.

Dietitians will meet at The Real Life Conference Centre at Maitland for a Professional Development Day on 9 September, where the first steps towards incorporating the new language into practice will be introduced.

“It’s a big step for dietitians across Hunter New England Health. Having standardised language and data across the Area means that if a patient sees a dietitian in the Mehi cluster, for example, another dietitian, or any other health professional in Newcastle will completely understand the purpose of dietitian involvement in that patients’ care and act upon their notes in a much more consistent fashion,” Helen Jackson Area Profession Director, Nutrition and Dietetics said.

Keynote speaker for the event, Dr Angela Vivanti is the Research and Development Dietitian at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Angela has worked across a variety of arenas in dietetics, including clinical, public health, food service and research and is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian.

Dietitians will first learn how to speak the new language, and will now be documenting a nutrition diagnosis, clearly outlining why and how the dietitian is involved in care.

For example, instead of saying ‘the patient requires a low fat diet’, which in the past could have been interpreted in a number of different ways, dietitians will now be saying ’excessive fat intake, due to frequent consumption of take-away meals’.

From this, nutrition diagnosis dietitians across HNE Health can provide consistent, specific high quality nutrition care.

From there, electronic databases will be updated with the new dietetic language.

The Hunter New England Health Dietitians Professional Development Day will be held on 9 September at the Real Life Conference Centre Ken Tubman Drive, Maitland, commencing at 9am.

Media opportunities are available by calling Abbey Wright on (02) 4921 4477.

A photo of keynote speaker, Dr Angela Vivanti is available on request.

Contact: Abbey Wright

Phone: (02) 4921 4477