Nutrition Assistant 2

Dominican Hospital; Live Oak (CA); On-site; USD 23,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

Dominican Hospital is seeking a Nutrition Assistant II to support hospital food service for patients, guests, and staff. You will help ensure therapeutic meals meet dietary requirements, handle allergy considerations, and maintain safe food handling and accurate portioning.

You will use electronic diet office software to access patient diet orders, collect preferences, and support a high-quality patient and customer experience in a healthcare setting.

Qualifications

• 1 year food service experience preferred.
• Understanding of therapeutic diet modifications.
• Ability to operate electronic diet office software and access patient diet orders.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and serve food per menu and dietary guidelines.
• Monitor food temperatures, hygiene, labeling, and portioning.
• Respond to allergy questions and dietary needs; ensure accurate meal tallies.
• Escalate complex nutrition questions to clinical team when needed.

Skills

Food service experience

Dietary guidelines

Customer service

Education

High School Diploma or GED

Job description

Job Summary and Responsibilities

As our Nutrition Assistant II, you will help Dominican Hospital's patients, guests, and staff by supporting all aspects of healthcare food service operations and delivering optimal nutritional care so they can experience excellent customer service and maintain therapeutic meal compliance.

Every day you will prepare and serve food according to menu guidelines and dietary requirements, maintaining knowledge of recipe ingredients for allergy responses. You will be expected to follow healthcare food service industry standards, ensure proper food temperatures, hygiene, and labeling, and contribute to a high-quality patient and customer experience with accurate meal portioning.

To be successful in this role you will have an understanding of therapeutic diet modifications, the ability to operate electronic diet office software, and experience in collecting patient food preferences while ensuring compliance with prescribed diet orders.

• Prepares and serves food within guidelines of menu and dietary requirements using required kitchen utensils and equipment. Maintains knowledge of recipe ingredients to respond to food allergy questions or requests.
• Follows healthcare foodservice industry standards, regulations, guidelines and procedures including monitoring and maintaining food temperatures during cooking, holding, and storage processes. Avoids cross-contamination of foods and adheres to personal hygiene requirements. Maintains proper labeling of food products and ensures storage of food equipment, and machinery per regulations and facility guidelines.
• Follows organizational standards and guidelines for a high quality patient and customer experience. Ensures proper meal portioning and an aesthetically pleasing presentation. Provides service recovery efforts and escalates to leadership as needed.
• May be responsible for one or more of the following: Following therapeutic diet modifications and guidelines including allergy restrictions for all patient meal trays, nourishment, snacks and supplements; Printing, providing and following production tool and/or electronic meal tallies/differentials for food preparation; Explaining basic therapeutic diet orders and menus and responding to questions from patients and family members. Escalating additional patient nutrition questions or needs to appropriate clinical support team members; Collecting patient food preferences and ensuring compliance with prescribed diet orders. Distributing food preferences to kitchen for menu planning in a timely manner; Operating electronic diet office software and tools following established procedures and protocols; Navigating electronic health records to access patient diet orders and nutritional reports.

Job Requirements

Required

• One (1) year food service experience and
• High School Graduate General Studies; or
• High School GED General Studies; or
• Equivalent combination of education and experience.

Where You'll Work

Founded in 1941, Dignity Health - Dominican Hospital is a 188-bed, acute care, nonprofit hospital located in Santa Cruz, California. Serving over 80,000 patients annually, the hospital offers a full complement of services including heart care, orthopedics, and a Family Birthing Center. Additionally, Dominican Hospital has been recognized as an LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality High Performer by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. It is a Joint Commission-certified Primary Stroke Center, and has been awarded the AMA/ASA’s Get the Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement, recognizing the hospital’s commitment to providing the best stroke care.

One Community. One Mission. One California