Culture convert is making its way throughout nursing homes and other long-term care settings over the nation and one of the most involving innovations in culture convert is in the dietary department. Some people believe that the kitchen has been one of the most forgotten and underrated place within long-term care. But, not any more! Many facilities that implement person-centered care as a part of their culture convert start in the kitchen because it can lead to vital improvements in the potential of dietary services. Everyone looks forward to great food and how food is served, and these changes are highly descriptive to residents, their families, and staff. Also, there are endless possibilities and opportunities for convert in dietary.
Hippocrates made the relationship between food and condition over 2000 years ago. He said "Let food be your medicine". Food is a very important part of condition and in expanding to its nourishing aspects, food has the power to heal and comfort people. Food is also a considerable stamp of nurturing, love and celebration. But, food has to be involving and desired. It has to be served in ways that request for retrial to people. Uneaten food has no nutritional value and does nothing but go to waste. Remember, meals many times are often the highlight of our resident's day.
Glass Dining Tables
One goal of making dietary changes is to bring in the thought of "home" as much as inherent to the dinning experience. Think of your own homes. You can find and have a snack anytime you want. You can make a meal for yourself or for your whole family. You can drink what you want when you want. You can put on a fresh pot of coffee, make tea, have a glass of ice water or anyone else you wish. You can eat with your family, in front of the television, while reading, or chatting on the phone with friends. You make a grocery list, hang it on the refrigerator, anyone can add to it, and then you go shopping. Just as we choose foods to eat, resident councils choose their own menus. Ethnic food choices are also important to consider.
Another goal when making changes in dietary is to offer flexible meal times. In person-centered care, the point is to de-institutionalize meal times and the dining experience. To facilitate residents sleeping in later in the morning, we must develop systems to serve meals to our residents at the times they choose to eat. We will have to become more flexible in how we think about food service. And as residents come and go we may have to added tweak our dining services. Many long-term care facilities have decided to implement flexible meal schedules such as the following: breakfast will be offered between 7:30am to 9:30am weekdays and maybe slightly later on the weekends; lunch will be served between 11:30am and 1:30pm; and supper will be served between 4:30pm (for the "early birds") until 6:30pm for those who prefer it later. Flexible meal times offers option and free time to residents and plainly makes the meal palpate better, because they can choose when they prefer to eat.
Another goal of convert in dietary services is to be innovative and creative in how food is served. Some of the more coarse dinning styles utilized in long-term care facilities contain buffet-style dinning, restaurant-style dinning, 24-hour room service, and open passage to food. These styles offer more option to residents and can make meal times more enjoyable. Buffet-style dinning involves a hot steam table in a central area (dinning room) or settled in many sites within the premise (i.e. On each unit or wing). Many facilities have indicated that the buffet works very well for breakfast. Restaurant-style dinning can be used in the main dinning room and those employees working in the dinning room can wear chef coats and black pants, to originate a cafeteria atmosphere. A restaurant-style menu is settled on each table and residents order anyone they wish from it. The menu can be changed once a month, regular or seasonally. Many facilities have always offered room service, but maybe never called it "room service" and indicated that it was ready 24-hours a day. This is a nice highlight for residents who are up at night and prefer to sleep throughout the day. It is also a nice option for family visitors who work odd shifts and visit their loved one while late evening hours. And finally, all residents, family and staff may have passage to snacks 24-hours a day by creating or construction small, kitchenette areas in the facility. And, don't stock it with just healthy snacks. Stock it with what residents and families want.
Other innovations in dinning contain a underground dinning room for extra occasions, dinning areas that have a warm and comfortable appearance, bread- and cookie-baking throughout the day to originate a more homelike atmosphere and to stimulate the diet, replacing 4-top tables with larger dinning room tables that seat 8 or more people, natural lighting or involving lighting, salt and pepper shakers, hot sauce, and sugar bowls settled on each table, and kitchenettes perfect with microwaves, small refrigerators, coffee pots, and storage space for snacks.
Dietary services are important in long-term care and culture convert is providing great ideas regarding how to become more innovative and creative with food and how it is served. Food is vital to life and the kinds of food and how it is served should heighten the potential of life for residents in long-term care.
James H. Collins, Ph.D.
Culture turn and Dining Innovations in Long-Term Care