Patient Nutrition Assistant — Meals, Safety & Care

Dignity Health; Santa Maria (CA); On-site; USD 34,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Founded in 1940, Marian Regional Medical Center is part of Dignity Health and located in Santa Maria, California. This Nutrition Assistant position focuses on delivering meals, assisting with food prep, and ensuring food safety and patient dietary needs are met.

You will interact with patients, maintain cleanliness, and adhere to dietary restrictions while supporting a positive dining experience in a hospital setting.

Qualifications

• One (1) year foodservice experience and
• High School Graduate General Studies, upon hire or
• High School GED General Studies, upon hire or
• Equivalent combination of education and experience

Responsibilities

• Prepares and serves food within guidelines of menu and dietary requirements using required kitchen utensils and equipment.
• 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.
• 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.
• Performing general cleaning of equipment and work areas (e.g., cleaning the tray line, equipment, coolers, office area, and emptying trash cans, etc.)

Skills

Foodservice experience

Education

High School Diploma or GED

High School GED General Studies

Equivalent combination of education and experience

Job description

Founded in 1940, Marian Regional Medical Center is part of Dignity Health and located in Santa Maria, California. This Nutrition Assistant position focuses on delivering meals, assisting with food prep, and ensuring food safety and patient dietary needs are met.

You will interact with patients, maintain cleanliness, and adhere to dietary restrictions while supporting a positive dining experience in a hospital setting.