Rebecca Little

Name: Rebecca Little

Job title: Highly Specialist Dietitian – Inpatient Team Leader

Age: 35

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Food, Nutrition and Health; Postgraduate Diploma in Dietetics

Why did you decide to become an AHP? I always knew I wanted to care for people and I love food! The two came together when I worked with a dietitian on work experience during my undergraduate degree and I realised a career as a dietitian was the one for me.

How did you train for your role? After completing my undergraduate degree at the University of Huddersfield I went to Leeds Metropolitan University (now Leeds Beckett University) and completed a two-year Postgraduate Diploma in Dietetics.

Length of time in role: Four years in my current role as inpatient team leader, critical care and enteral feeding specialist dietitian.

Length of time at BTHFT: 11 years – I have worked here since I qualified in 2008 in a range of settings from diabetes to oncology and surgery.

What do you do? On critical care I develop individualised care plans for patients, which usually involves nasogastric tube feeding. I review these patients throughout their stay in critical care. I am part of the Trust’s Enteral Nutrition Team, and see patients requiring complex nutritional decisions and assess them for longer term artificial feeding. I also line manage three dietitians and a dietetic assistant practitioner.

What do you enjoy most about your job? I love the variety and complexity of patients in Bradford. It really is true that no two days are ever the same and this keeps me on my toes. I also really enjoy supporting our team and helping everyone develop in their roles and fulfil their potential. We eat a lot of cake too!

What professional achievement are you most proud of? I am most proud when I see the patient who we first met three years ago who was so malnourished they were close to death. They are now at a point where life is starting to return to normal and they are a healthy weight. This is the most complex patient I have ever seen and a fairly rare example of where a dietitian can save someone’s life.

Which other teams do you work with? I work with a lot of other teams including physios, speech and language therapists, nutrition nurse specialists, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, catering, clinical engineering and lots more.

What are your future career plans? Currently I am settled in the role I am in and hope to continue leading the adult inpatient team for a while longer. Perhaps in the future I would like to take on more leadership responsibilities but I can’t imagine ever not working in Bradford; the dietetics team here is fantastic.

What are your future career plans? I would like to stay with the Trust and explore further opportunities available in the organisation.