Dr Barbara Engel

I have been a dietitian for over 25 years and I have covered most areas of dietetics but in particular I have worked in the fields of renal disease, gastroenterology, diabetes and intensive care. I have been the Programme Director for Dietetics for the last seven years. 

My main remit as Programme Director is to ensure the Dietetic Programme meets the high standards expected by the British Dietetic Association and the Health and Care  Professions Council. These professional and regulating bodies approve and accredit the Dietetics Programme and dietetic students can apply to be dietitians once they have successfully completed the course. As the Team Lead for Dietetics I coordinate the activities of my small but vibrant team to ensure high standards of teaching and excellent placement opportunities for the students. As a teaching fellow I teach on the practical nutrition and dietetic modules, hence the reason that I continue to work as a dietitian when possible as I feel it enhances my ability to teach the practical aspects of nutrition and dietetics and hopefully enthuse students with the wide range of interesting areas which can be covered in our professions.

Until March 2020 I worked one day a week at St Georges hospital as a renal dietitian where I cared for people with renal disease on dialysis in particular looking after the young adults on dialysis. One of my greatest achievements was to look after a young woman who was pregnant and on dialysis and I worked closely with the multidisciplinary team to ensure her nutritional status and biochemical status were maintained so that she had a successful pregnancy. In the last 10 years I have also worked for Central Surrey Health where I was the highly specialist Nutrition Support Dietitian and Team Leader for Acute Dietetic Services. I managed a small team of dietitians and a nutritionist to deliver the dietetic service to the Acute wards and clinics in Epsom General Hospital. I covered Intensive Care, surgical and respiratory wards as well as looking after patients on home enteral feeding and parenteral (intravenous) feeding. I was awarded the Spirit Award for outstanding contribution to patient care (March 2011).

Since March 2020 I have developed and led a Public Health Project called Be Your Best https://www.bybsurrey.org/ . Throughout lockdown my nutrition and dietetic students aided by facilitators been have running a 5 week course for families on healthy eating, the importance of exercise and sleep, budgeting and meal planning. The students have also been running separate sessions for the children and this has resulted in improvements in weight, self esteem and knowledge of healthy lifestyles. 

I am active on the Education Committee for the Renal Nutrition Group (specialist interest group of the BDA) and together with my colleague Claire Gardiner from the Leeds Beckett University I ran a 4 day zoom course for dietitians new to the renal field in January 2021. This was attended by 42 dietitians from all over the UK. As a result of this work and other RNG  activities which I supported throughout lockdown I was named on the BDA Roll of Honour 2021 for COVID 19 Community Heroes.