Patient Dining Aide

Hartford Healthcare•Bridgeport, CT

About The Position

The Patient Dining Aide is responsible for food service on assigned patient units, including taking menu selections, assembling and delivering meal trays, retrieving trays, stocking units as needed, and fulfilling requests for food between meals. The aide maintains accurate, current information for each patient and ensures menu choices comply with prescribed diets, allergies, and sensitivities. They offer suitable alternatives that respect patients’ cultural, ethnic, and religious preferences, and coordinate with Nursing to confirm diet prescriptions and address food needs. After meal trays are delivered, the aide rounds on patients to check for additional needs. The role may also support dietitians in monitoring patients who are NPO, on liquid diets, or undergoing a calorie count. Patient-related concerns must be communicated promptly to appropriate personnel according to departmental procedures. The aide also participates in departmental meetings and staff development programs as appropriate, and performs other related duties as required.

Requirements

Must be able to read and speak English.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals; may need to compute ratios and percentages.
Ability to operate the hospital’s admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) system and other computer-based systems used to manage patient-care records.
Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations.

Nice To Haves

High school diploma or GED preferred.
Two years of customer service experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Take patient menu selections before meal service while observing prescribed dietary restrictions and diet-order limitations.
Offer appropriate menu alternatives in consideration of prescribed diets, allergies, sensitivities, and cultural, ethnic, or religious preferences.
Assemble and deliver meal trays to assigned units, retrieve trays after meals, and stock patient units as needed.
Fulfill special requests for food between meals.
Maintain accurate and current information for patients on assigned units.
Coordinate with Nursing to ensure diet prescriptions are accurate and patients’ food needs are met.
Round on patients after trays are passed and address additional needs.
Assist dietitians with monitoring patients who are NPO, on liquid diets, or have a calorie count ordered, as needed.
Communicate patient-related problems or concerns to appropriate personnel in a timely manner and according to departmental procedures.
Attend departmental meetings and staff development programs as appropriate.
Perform other related duties as required.