PAY RATE: $13.00 - $15.50

JOB DESCRIPTION

Position works as an approved feeding assistant supporting dietary and nursing departments with overall meal service delivery.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS:

• Role works as a position in the dietary department
• Prior to assisting with feeding non-complicated residents, the dining assistant has successfully completed a State-approved Paid Feeding Assistant Training course that includes
  • Feeding techniques
  • Assistance with feeding and hydration
  • Communication and interpersonal skills
  • Appropriate responses to resident behavior
  • Safety and emergency procedures, including the Heimlich maneuver
  • Infection control
  • Resident rights
  • Recognizing changes in residents that are inconsistent with their normal behavior and the importance of reporting those changes to the supervisory nurse
• Assists nursing personnel in providing feeding assistance to residents who have no complicated feeding problems, including but not limited to difficulty swallowing, recurrent lung aspirations, and tube or parental/iv feedings. This activity is under the supervision of a registered nurse (RN), or a licensed practical nurse (LPN) on duty.   In an emergency, a dining assistant must call a supervisory nurse for help
• The interdisciplinary team selects the residents’ appropriateness for the program based on the residents’ latest assessment and plan of care.
• The position generally works a hour before to an hour after the full Meal Service.

RESPONSIBILITIES                                                        

1. Meal Service:

• Assists getting residents to/from the dining room for meal services
• Assists with set up of the dining room and pre-meal tasks related to table set up, drinks, dignity, etc.
• Passes trays and drinks to residents in dining room
• Delivers room trays to the patient’s room – including set up of the tray and food items.
• Assists and feeds residents without complicated feeding problems

1. Answers call lights as needed before or after meals to allow the nursing department to focus on resident ADL and medication needs.
2. Assists with ice and water to patients between meals including the hydration cart and night time (HS) snack pass.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS AND WORKING CONDITIONS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations that do not cause an undue hardship on the company may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions, as long as that would not hinder or prevent performance of duties, or be of a safety concern.