Nutrition Technician, Nutritional Services, Per Diem, Variable Shift

MarinHealth Medical Center•Bon Air, CA

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Nutrition Technician serves as a liaison between patients, staff, visitors, and the Nutrition Services Department, organizing patient information for food-service production. The role supports patient meal service by helping patients select meals, explaining therapeutic diet orders, coordinating dietary information with clinical dietitians and production staff, and ensuring tray tickets and diet orders are accurate. The technician also supports tray-line operations, food-safety monitoring, diet-office systems, customer service, and patient-safety and performance-improvement initiatives. The position serves patients from infancy through late adulthood and requires care and service appropriate to patients’ physical, psychosocial, educational, and safety needs. It has access to protected health information as necessary to perform its duties. Nutrition Technicians with an active Diet Technician, Registered (DTR) certification may perform additional duties under an RDN’s supervision, such as assisting with nutrition assessments and medical nutrition therapy, calculating calorie counts, providing nutrition education, and conducting department in-services.

Requirements

High school diploma or equivalent required.
Knowledge of modified and therapeutic diets required.
ServeSafe (SSC) Certification required within 90 days of hire.
Integrative Agitation Management (IAMTAC) required within 30 days of hire.
Ability to interact effectively and professionally with patients, staff, and visitors.
Ability to provide patient education about individual diet prescriptions at a level appropriate to the patient’s ability to learn.
Ability to apply critical thinking and modified and therapeutic diet principles to meet patient nutrition needs within individual diet prescriptions.
Expert understanding of food-service production capabilities.
Ability to follow through and work independently with little supervision; problem-solving skills are essential.
Effective written and oral communication in English.
Ability to interview patients in person, including patients on infection-control precautions, while using appropriate personal protective equipment.
Basic computer skills.
Willingness and ability to adapt to changing needs and learn new technology.
Ability to respond cooperatively to crisis or emergency workload.
Ability to provide care and service appropriate to the age-specific needs of patients from birth through 80 years and older.
Ability to meet MarinHealth’s required measles, mumps, varicella, and annual influenza immunization conditions of employment; medical or religious exemptions will be considered consistent with applicable law.

Nice To Haves

Two-year degree in a nutrition-related field.
Previous diet technician, diet assistant, or diet clerk experience in an acute-care hospital.
Proficient ability to communicate in Spanish.
Active Diet Technician, Registered (DTR) certification from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for potential additional duties under an RDN’s supervision.

Responsibilities

Provide basic patient education regarding individual therapeutic diet orders.
Assist patients with menu selections efficiently and with excellent customer service.
Offer alternative menu selections based on modified and therapeutic diets and department production capabilities.
Prepare production information for cooks and other food-preparation staff for patient meals and between-meal nourishments.
Use diet-office software to provide production tallies and diet reports and help ensure tray-ticket and diet-order accuracy.
Answer telephone calls promptly and professionally.
Plan work effectively to meet production deadlines.
Supervise the tray line, monitor trays for accuracy, load trays onto food carts, and maintain a quiet, focused tray-line environment.
Prepare late trays and arrange delivery.
Handle cash between the café and department safe when needed.
Help maintain refrigerator and freezer temperature logs and monitor the Checkpoint Temperature Control system.
Help troubleshoot technical issues in diet-office computer systems.
Participate in performance-improvement and patient-safety initiatives.
Contribute to education for staff, interns, and volunteers as needed.
Consult with nursing staff, the interdisciplinary care team, patients, and families regarding nutrition care plans; facilitate implementation of the plan and food preferences.
Visit newly admitted patients to explain diet orders and obtain food preferences, allergies, and intolerances; communicate information to clinical dietitians as needed.
Communicate requests for nutrition consults to clinical dietitians.
Print and manage patient tray tickets before meal service and create appropriate tickets for patients not participating in menu selection.
Process diet orders and maintain and update the patient database in CBORD so its information matches the hospital computer system.
Communicate with clinical dietitians and production staff about patient nutrition care and resolve patient-care issues using appropriate communication methods.
Check email during each shift to stay informed about hospital and department operations.
Provide exceptional customer service, identify solutions to meal-service issues, and provide service recovery as warranted.
Adhere to MGH Service Standards and Behaviors.
Perform other duties as assigned.
For Nutrition Technicians with active DTR certification, additional supervised duties may include assisting an RDN with nutrition assessment, implementation, and monitoring of medical nutrition therapy; calculating calorie counts; providing nutrition education; and providing department in-services.