Dietary Staff

 Dietary Aide Duties and Responsibilities

A dietary aide’s key duties include helping prepare food for residents who require help eating their meals. The dietary aides work side-by-side with their dietary managers to prepare meals. They also help with cleaning, maintaining the kitchen, taking down, and setting up the dining areas. Other duties include delivering food to residents, serving, and preparing snacks, and taking stock of kitchen supplies and food. Dietary aides must know the protocols of food processes for their facilities, along with the rules for the states where they currently work. Other duties include:

• Ensuring that food stocks are full and whether they need to be replaced

• Keeping their knowledge about healthy foods up-to-date and having information about latest healthy cooking techniques

• Delivering trays and dishes at designated rooms and times

• Taking down dining areas and collecting glasses, plates, etc.

• Discarding leftovers and taking out garbage

• Cleaning food stations and washing dishes, cooking silverware and vessels.

• Helping maintain kitchen appliances and equipment

• Preparing meals using standards to maintain quality and sanitation

• Recording meals served accurately and monitoring food temperatures

• Washing dishes and/or utensils in a way that is in line with acceptable practice standards

• Conferring with patients to get a good idea about their food likes and dislikes

• Making sure that patients do eat their meals to ascertain their proper caloric intake

• Talking to patients before, after and during mealtimes

• Cleaning food preparation areas to make sure that hygiene standards are fulfilled

Skills

Dietary aides are required to possess certain skills that enable them to carry out their assigned duties more efficiently. These skills include paying attention to detail and having the ability to properly follow instructions for dietary needs, reading recipes, and meal orders. Their dietary aide should also have the physical potential to prepare food, assist the residents in eating and serving meals, along with being able to handle kitchen equipment and also clean up after meals. Besides their physical skills, a dietary aide should also be compassionate, understanding, and gentle when working with residents, as well as their family members.

Requirements

• Previous experience as a dietary aide

• Thorough knowledge about safety guidelines and sanitation

• Aptness in preparing meals in accordance with the precise instructions

• Skilled in operating cooking appliances, bakeware, and cookware

• A high school diploma or equivalent; food certification is always appreciated

• Food service and/or culinary experience in a health care facility is a bonus

• Ability to cooperate and work in a team

• Ability to read and comprehend common recipes

• Ability to work efficiently and quickly

• Ability to stand for long periods and lift heavy weights

• Willingness to participate in continuing education courses and training

• A certificate from American Dietician Association will prove quite helpful in getting you a job, although it is not necessary.

Working Routine Qualifications

The regular day of a dietary aide consists of working under the dietary manager and assisting residents when they need it. Extra work tasks may include passing around food trays to their designated rooms and at their designated times, following state and federal regulations concerning food safety, returning dirty dishes to the kitchen for cleaning and tidying up dining areas, receiving, and stocking supplies or food, following safety guidelines when working, and avoiding any food contamination by storing it properly.

Dietary aides working in health care facilities usually spend most of their time standing and walking around carrying out different tasks. During their day-to-day activities, a dietary aide may have to indulge in activities that involve lifting around 50 pounds in goods such as food supplies. Working in the kitchen may also mean having to deal with extreme temperature shifts, from extra heat in the cooking area to freezing temperatures when working in the walk-in-freezers.