Hire Nutrition Assistants
Together with dieticians and nutritionists, nutrition assistants form the team that makes hospital food more delicious and nutritious.
Finding a nutrition assistant begins with drafting a compelling job description that is compelling to job seekers. For a catchy job post, hiring managers should be clear, concise, and detailed. What is the schedule? Is prior experience required? Carefully outline the responsibilities as well as requirements. Include details about your facility that help candidates picture themselves working in your company. Hiring managers must anticipate what the candidates may think about upon reading the job description.
Aside from general job boards, it is best for hiring managers to post job announcements on healthcare-specific job boards, online groups, and in community groups. Getting referrals from current employees is a helpful way to source candidates. Your staff may already know someone who would be a good fit for the nutrition assistant role. Why not let them know about the job opening?
Nutrition Assistant Responsibilities
Nutrition assistants collaborate with nutritionists and dieticians in providing nutritious, healthy, and delicious meals to patients during their stay in the hospital. They work directly with patients by collecting patient information about their nutrition habits and food choices through interviews. In this way, nutrition assistants can find out about specific dietary restrictions, food allergies, and caloric needs that can impact their health. This information is crucial in the development of their meal plans. Working with dieticians and nutritionists, nutrition assistants help in creating delicious and nutritious meal plans for admitted patients in the facility. They ensure that the facility can provide both general meal plans and specialized meals that cater to specific needs.
Nutrition assistants serve meals to patients and ensure that the correct meals are sent to the intended patient. They take note of patient feedback and report them as needed. Additionally, nutrition assistants help in the cleaning process by collecting used dishes, discarding leftover items, and sanitizing used utensils. Lastly, nutrition assistants help educate patients on healthy eating habits.
Nutrition Assistant Skills and Qualifications
The ideal candidate for a nutrition assistant role must be calm, professional, and work well with others. As someone who will go to patients’ rooms and interact with them, the candidate should have strong communication skills and good bedside manner. Additionally, other requirements are attention to detail and the ability to follow verbal and written instructions well.
Most healthcare facilities require a bachelor's degree in nutrition, health, or in a related field. Prior experience working in a relevant role is a plus but is usually not required.
The candidate should be able to meet the physical aspect of the job, and be able to stand for long periods of time and carry trays with food and beverages. Lastly, the ideal candidate should be available to work in shifts, on weekends, and holidays.
The work of a nutrition assistant may oftentimes go unnoticed. However, the service that they provide to patients through the hospital’s food service delivery system is incredibly important for their health and wellbeing.
