Guest guest Posted December 10, 2008 Report Share Posted December 10, 2008 Does anyone have a program/practice guideline for a dining program? Our group has fading in usage over the years but we acknowledge the benefit of supporting a communal dining experience. We face the challenges of all staff (not just therapy) supporting the workload associated with preparing patients to dine with their peers and facilitating patients' participation in the group. I would appreciate suggestions from the group as to how your program runs, what meal(s) work well for this program, and how your staff feel about the program (i.e do they support it). thank you, Kari Voll, OTR/L, Therapy Manager Sentara Healthcare Norfolk, VA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 10, 2008 Report Share Posted December 10, 2008 Kari, Our IRF restarted our dining program this past summer. It took a lot of collaboration between the therapists, rehab nursing and the kitchen. The key for us is having the dining program right after some kind of group therapy. We schedule group therapy sessions in and around our dining room/activity room (Our dining room is on the same floor as the gym and patient rooms). Here's the breakdown 1045-1130 patients are schedule group therapy sessions. 1100-Nursing takes their lunch 1130- Kitchen delivers lunch trays 1130-1145 All therapists will set up the patients in the dining room for lunch @1145- Nursing, Nursing assistants and Rehab techs relieve the therapists in the dining room and assist in returing the patients to their room as they finish their lunch. We used to stagger nuring and the rehab techs but found that the patients are finishing their lunches earlier so we just combined them. Cull PT,NCS Therapy Supervisor Southern Illinois Healthcare Herrin, IL ---------------------- Original Message: --------------------- To: PTManager Subject: IRF dining program Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:13:03 +0000 > Does anyone have a program/practice guideline for a dining program? > Our group has fading in usage over the years but we acknowledge the > benefit of supporting a communal dining experience. We face the > challenges of all staff (not just therapy) supporting the workload > associated with preparing patients to dine with their peers and > facilitating patients' participation in the group. I would appreciate > suggestions from the group as to how your program runs, what meal(s) > work well for this program, and how your staff feel about the program > (i.e do they support it). > > thank you, > > Kari Voll, OTR/L, Therapy Manager > Sentara Healthcare > Norfolk, VA > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 We designate certain patients to be part of our " Diner's Club. " As such, they must eat in the dining room (versus their room). They have swallow precautions in a sleeve on the back of their wheelchair (turned over) that is taken off the w/c and put in front of them when eating. The CNAs are trained by our SLPs to help patients w/ swallow precautions, so they use the page to guide them. They all sit at the same table(s) so as to not feel singled out if they were to eat w/ patients w/o swallow precautions. This happens for all meals. In addition, SLPs see patients during breakfast and lunch for 1:1 " Meal Monitors, " which are actual dyphagia treatment sessions. OTs also schedule patients during breakfast and lunch to work on feeding skills. OTs and SLPs communicate to make sure they are not working w/ the same patient at the same time. In addition, we have a " Fine Dining " meal that occurs once a week for dinner time, where we set up the dining room like a real restaurant; patients use real dinnerware (i.e. no trays or plastic bowls, etc) and glassware, and are encouraged to try and feed themselves. They are allowed to invite one guest who is able to assist them, but the idea is that they try not to use staff assistance and pretend they are in a real restaurant environment. We only do this once for each patient, and wait until right before discharge to do it. They even order from a (limited) menu the day before. Please call/email me directly if you want any more info! Weiss, PT Inpatient Rehab Coordinator Ingalls Health System Harvey, IL 60426 ________________________________ From: PTManager [mailto:PTManager ] On Behalf Of kvvot70 Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 6:45 PM To: PTManager Subject: IRF dining program Does anyone have a program/practice guideline for a dining program? Our group has fading in usage over the years but we acknowledge the benefit of supporting a communal dining experience. We face the challenges of all staff (not just therapy) supporting the workload associated with preparing patients to dine with their peers and facilitating patients' participation in the group. I would appreciate suggestions from the group as to how your program runs, what meal(s) work well for this program, and how your staff feel about the program (i.e do they support it). thank you, Kari Voll, OTR/L, Therapy Manager Sentara Healthcare Norfolk, VA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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