"I really enjoy working as part of a multidisciplinary team and helping patients to recover with good nutritional care."

My degree in pharmacology was interesting but would have led to a career in a lab. I had an interest in nutrition and wanted to work with people so a postgraduate diploma in dietetics was an obvious choice for me. 

I worked as a ward dietitian and then as a research dietitian and it soon became apparent that nutritional support was the area I was most interested in. Nutritional support involves feeding very sick and malnourished patients, often through tubes and intravenous lines. I jumped at the chance when a specialist nutritional support post came up at Royal Liverpool University Hospital in 1995 and have been in the role ever since. 

I’m part of a multidisciplinary nutrition team with a pharmacist, nutrition nurse and doctor. Every morning we do a ward round of around 20 patients on intravenous feeding known as total parenteral nutrition [1]. I monitor patients’ progress and work out their requirements in terms of energy, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals which helps the pharmacist to devise a suitable feeding regime for the patient. 

In the afternoons I work on surgical wards or the intensive care [2] unit. Surgical patients often need building up before their operation with food, oral nutritional supplements or tube feeds and usually need nutritional support to help them recover after surgery. Intensive care [2] patients usually need to be fed through tubes and drips and I decide on the best feeding options for them. 

I also lead a team of a band 5 and band 6 dietitians, undertake clinical audit [3] and educate hospital staff including nurses and doctors on the importance of good nutritional care. I am also chair of the committee that organises the British Association for Parenteral [4] and Enteral Nutrition annual conference, the UK’s largest clinical nutrition conference.    

I really enjoy working as part of a multidisciplinary team and helping patients to recover with good nutritional care. Giving presentations to educate staff about the importance of good nutritional care is also very rewarding.