Weight Loss Prevention
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USE OTHER STAFF MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS TO HELP AT MEAL- AND SNACK-TIMES
If your facility is short-staffed at mealtimes, consider using non-traditional staff for some tasks. Volunteers, social service staff, licensed nurses, even administrative personnel can help with a variety of time-consuming tasks, all of them typically the responsibility of the nurse aide. We recommend assigning non-traditional staff, including part-time feeding assistants, all of whom have little, if any training in feeding assistance, to tasks other than feeding assistance. Such tasks include transporting residents to and from the dining room, delivering and picking up meal trays, setting up meal trays (e.g., opening containers, cutting up meat), retrieving substitute meals for residents who don't like the served meal, conversing with and encouraging residents to eat throughout the meal, and delivering between-meal snacks to residents. The performance of these tasks by staff other than nurse aides greatly increases the time nurse aides have available to provide quality feeding assistance to residents in need.
Our research shows that residents who are responsive to our mealtime intervention are more likely to need physical assistance to eat and to have difficulty with chewing and swallowing (2). Consequently, certified nurse aides, with supervision by licensed nurses, should be assigned to provide mealtime feeding assistances to these residents.
By contrast, residents responsive to our snack intervention were more capable of eating on their own (2). Given this, the delivery of snacks between meals is a suitable assignment for social activities personnel or volunteers, provided they are informed of residents' diet orders. The snack intervention fits in well with most morning and afternoon social activities programs. Moreover, in our experience, social activities coordinators are willing to take on the extra responsibility because the intervention adds a new, pleasurable dimension to their programs.
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