Nutrition Aide

Similar to a Dietary Aide, a Nutrition Aide prepares and delivers food for patients in hospitals or medical clinics, or the residents of nursing homes. In your job as a Nutrition Aide, half of your time is spent in the kitchen and the other half with patients.

In the kitchen, as the Nutrition Aide, you help prepare the food, doing things like cutting fruit for a salad or making sandwiches, then plating everything up so it can be served. If you’re not a Chef, don’t worry. The help you provide is minimal, and you won’t be expected to prepare complicated meals.

The most important thing to keep in mind while in the kitchen is the diets of your patients. From their Doctors charts, you’ll know which ones have special dietary needs due to conditions like diabetes or food allergies. You, along with the Dietician and Cook, make sure the right patients get the right meals that will help them recover from their illnesses.

The other big part of your job involves working with patients. You deliver meals to rooms, and check on how well the patient is eating. While a patient is recovering, you can often tell how well they feel overall by seeing how hungry they are.

You ask questions like how hungry they are that day, how appetizing the food looks, and what they like to eat. The answers are recorded in the patient’s charts, and used to gauge how well they’re feeling as well as what new dishes should be introduced to the menu.