Hospital Dietary Aide Duties

A hospital dietary aide is an individual who conducts dining services for patients in a hospital dining room. The aide helps serve meals and sets up and distributes patients' meal trays. A hospital dietary aide also performs other duties as needed throughout the busy workday. To become a dietary aide, a person must have a high school diploma and good customer service skills.

Consultant

Dietary aides consult with patients about the types of food they like to eat, including determining their food preferences while in the hospital as well as developing plans to help patients eat healthier at home. Dietary aides also work with other health care staff to make the best choices for the patients.

Nutrition Care Plan

Dietary aides usually develop personalized nutrition care plans that include how much and what types of foods patients should receive. Dietary aides provide this information to dietitians during consultations regarding patients' health plans.

Planning Menus

To help patients choose more effective and healthy diets, dietary aides work with patients to plan the best menus for their specific health concerns.

Diet Records

To keep track of patients' progress, dietary aides create diet records that provide nutritional analyses of all the food consumed. Diet records also reveal the amount of food patients are eating and the goal for each nutrient.

Instructor

Dietary aides assist food service staff in preparing and serving meals to patients who may be on strict diets. Dietary aides also help staff understand patients' health conditions and the diets they need to fit their health regimes.

References

• Myfuture: Dietary Aide

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish