Location: Eagle Lake,TX, USA
Facility Address:
Columbus Oaks Healthcare Community
300 North Street
Columbus, TX 78934
DietaryAide Duties and Responsibilities
A dietary aides key duties include helpingprepare 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.