Work Together: Food
Service as part of the
healthcare team
Food is vital to a patient’s
experience and recovery
• Food intake is important to the recovery of patients;
patients who do not eat the food stay longer in
hospital
• Older adults are more likely to experience barriers
to food intake
• Quality food is important to the patient experience
in hospital
Foodservice workers are a vital
part of the team
• Food is medicine. Medicine heals.
• High quality food requires effort and investment
• Staff who deliver the tray
•
•
•
•
Can represent a positive hospital experience
Can be a friendly face
See how the patient does with meals
Ensure that patients get this vital therapy on time and
when they can eat
Encourage Food Intake
• Provide friendly, positive encouragement for eating the
meal; a brief chat with a patient can be the highlight of
their day
• Remove barriers to food intake; put the tray close to the
patient, open packages
• Consider how volunteers can do some tasks to ensure meals
are delivered on time
• Discuss the possibility of those who deliver the tray to
also record the amount eaten
• Have food (all textures) available for patients outside of
mealtimes, and for those who may have missed a meal
Identify when things can be
improved
• Let other staff know
when a patient is
struggling with eating
• Communicate patient
preferences
• Complete periodic
audits of mealtimes to
understand
• Preferred foods
• Barriers to food intake
• Where improvements
can be made
Increasing Staff Awareness
• Many unit staff may be unaware of how the food
delivery system works at their hospital, where the
food comes from or even how it tastes.
• If there seem to be negative attitudes from staff
regarding the food, an education and tasting session
can change their perceptions.
• Get patient and staff feedback about the food; what
patients report as liking/disliking, or where
improvements can be made.
Acknowledgements
These slides were created
and approved by:
Heather Keller
Celia Laur
Bridget Davidson
The More-2-Eat Education
Group*
* Includes input from the UK Need for
Nutrition Education/Innovation
Programme (NNEdPro) Group
The More-2-Eat study was funded by the Canadian Frailty Network (known
previously as Technology Evaluation in the Elderly Network, TVN), supported by
Government of Canada through Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE)
Program