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Congratulations PENG Chair Anne Holdoway
On behalf of PENG Committee, we would like to wish a huge congratulations to Anne Holdoway, our very own Chair of PENG, who has been awarded with a BDA Fellowship for her outstanding and continual support to the profession. This is fantastic news – watch this space for a special feature in the next edition of e-PENlines.
PENG Members Receive Roll of Honour
Congratulations to the following PENG members who recently (in the past year) received a Roll of Honour from the BDA for their invaluable contributions:
- Ann Ashworth – PEN reviewer (2015)
- Emma Carder – Reaching an audience of 8 million via 3 #RDUK Twitter Chats (2015)
- Ruth Stow – Research symposium (awarded in 2015)
- Katrina Evans – Contribution to safe staffing and safe caseload project (2015)
- Ailsa Kennedy – Contribution to the blenderised diet position statement and work with ENFit (2015)
- Emma Parsons – Chairing research symposium (2015)
- Ruth Chinuck – Prescribing project (2016)
- Alison Culkin – Prescribing project (2016).
Malnutrition Pathway Updates Website
The www.malnutritionpathway.co.uk website has been redeveloped with a number of improvements and updates, including specific sections for dietitians, GPs, nurses, pharmacists, speech and language therapists, patients and carers. The website also now includes a section for resources that have been developed for patients who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition and for those who have specific common conditions. Professionals are encouraged to sign up for regular free updates and to share testimonials and best practice via the site, a £500 educational grant will be awarded to information submitted and featured on the site.
Since its launch in June 2012 the website has been visited by over 30,000 people – 95% of whom are healthcare professionals and 5% patients and carers. The ‘Managing Adult Malnutrition in the Community’ guide and pathway is now being used across the UK and was featured as a key document in the recently launched NHS England Guidance – ‘Commissioning Excellent Nutrition and Hydration 2015-2018’.
The site aims to become a central source of information on malnutrition in the community for professionals and patients. It is hoped that professionals will be keen to share information on the website so that best practice can be encouraged across the country.
A new quarterly online newsletter has been launched for healthcare professionals which includes updates on relevant guidelines, reports, clinical papers and activities going on around the UK in relation to malnutrition. The newsletter is available free on the website – to ensure you are updated on each issue go to: http://malnutritionpathway.co.uk/register-updates and fill in your details. If you are interested in submitting an article for the newsletter, please email information to: hilary@franklincoms.co.uk
A number of new patient and healthcare professional resources are currently being developed and will be incorporated into the site during 2016.
Apply for a PENG Grant
PENG are able to offer some small grants to PENG members enabling you to undertake research, audit and service evaluation in the area of clinical nutrition and nutrition support.
PENG members can apply to PENG for money to support aspects of running a project, project costs, equipment and for help with salaries. Exceptionally money can be awarded to support study at post graduate (PG) level.
To apply for money through these grants PENG members should complete the appropriate application form on the website and read through the guidance notes which can be found on our website: www.peng.org.uk/education-research/peng-grants.php
Researcher Needs Your Views on Blended Diets
Research: The use and knowledge of blended diets given via gastrostomy by dietitians working with enteral feeding in the UK.
Linda Cantwell is currently undertaking an MSc research project affiliated with the University of Chester. The use of blended diets (BD) given via a gastrostomy has become increasingly more popular over the past number of years. Currently the use and knowledge of BD amongst dietitians working in enteral nutrition in the UK is unknown. Therefore, this research aims to identify the current use and knowledge of BD amongst registered dietitians who support patients receiving enteral nutrition. It will require dietitians to participate in a short questionnaire which should take no longer than 5-10min. Please see below the links for the participant information leaflet and the online questionnaire which will be accessible for four weeks from the 14th March 2016.
If you have any further questions please contact the researcher, Linda Cantwell, via: 0909746@chester.ac.uk
Participant information link here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14HFEgWdfENVVYNqrjVCakv4VocrFQj9qZbJsJHi2I9Y/pub
Survey link here: https://chester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/use-and-experiences-of-dietitians-with-blended-diets-given
News from the BDA
Council elections
BDA Council elections are now taking place and the closing date for nominations is 5pm on 5th May 2016. The BDA needs you and we are urging members to consider putting themselves forward for election. If you’re passionate about the profession and what to help make an impact, why not get involved?
Council Members are responsible for: promoting the BDA; the strategic leadership of the BDA; setting priorities for work plans; managing the Association’s assets and finances; setting and monitoring policy; representing BDA’s policies and views to all four UK governments and other decision-makers; and ensuring each individual Council Member is accountable for the strategic development of their own areas of responsibility (e.g. Committees, Boards, Constituency and so on). Further information can be found at: www.bda.uk.com/about/corporate/elections/council_elections
Eating well, living well
The BDA are about to launch our very first public facing magazine – a brand new publication, designed to help educate, guide and inform the public about healthy eating and lifestyle messages, while underpinning and cementing the role of the Dietitian in aiding them achieve better health and wellbeing. This is the first time the BDA has been able to deliver a wider, public facing, product. The magazine will be available for you to distribute to your patients and clients, totally free of charge, in either a hard (paper), or soft (Ezine) version, which you can either hand or email out to them. The publication will also have an accompanying microsite, which will be able to be accessed via the BDA site. The publication will be launched around March and we very much hope that you will be able to support this important initiative from us. Should you have any questions regarding it, would like to contribute editorial for it, or would like to order a number of the paper versions for yourself or your patients and clients, please do not hesitate to contact Andrew Roberts, at our Logistics Partner, the CW Publishing Group, on 0207 665 1111, or alternatively email him on: ar@cwpg.com.
Supplementary prescribing rights for dietitians become a reality
The BDA are delighted that dietitians have been granted supplementary prescribing rights. This significant decision made by Minister George Freeman and announced at the end of February, means that advanced level and experienced dietitians, who have successfully completed an approved post graduate education and training programme, will be able to prescribe medicines for their patients under a clinical management plan. Further information can be found at: www.bda.uk.com/news/view?id=107&x[0]=/news/list. We would like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks to all the members that have been involved in this project over the last 10 years.
Dietitians Week 2016
2016 will see the third annual Dietitians Week run by the British Dietetic Association, taking place from 6-10 June. Dietitians Week 2016 takes the theme of ‘workplace health’ in relation to the BDA’s new Work Ready Programme, targeting the improvement of the health of the UK workforce. Each day of the week-long event will take on a different subtheme including:
- protecting your lunch hour
- hydration
- food and movement
- healthy meetings
- food and mood.
The week includes a range of national awareness raising and political events throughout the UK which promote the profession and the impact of dietetic practice on the health of the nation, including a visit to the House of Lords.
How can you get involved?
In preparation for Dietitians Week, and so that the messages you use in your local workplaces are relevant and pertinent, we would appreciate it if you could complete a short online survey – an audit of the availability of water at work. The survey will be closed on March 31.
Are you on Twitter yet?
Additionally, the majority of activity for Dietitians Week 2016 will take place on social media – specifically Twitter. The BDA would like to encourage members to get involved with key messaging and supporting our social activity, by tweeting throughout Dietitians Week so please do make sure if you haven’t already, that you sign up to Twitter and follow our main accounts:
- @BrDieteticAssoc
- @DietitiansWeek
Also before you start, why not check out our Professional Social Media Guidance.
Nutrition and Hydration Week 14-20th March 2016
During Nutrition and Hydration Week, dietitians from the Rotherham General Hospital Dietetic Department attended each ward with their ‘nutrition and hydration trolley’
This week was used to support appropriate prescribing of nutritional supplements and offer nutrition support advice at ward level to staff. It was also used to promote the dietetic services within Rotherham General Hospital. This was used as an opportunity for wards to highlight nutritional training needs. There was also drop-in 'MUST', food chart and pump training.
