During this year’s National Nutrition Month, we’re going beyond encouraging you to eat healthier. We want to help you understand the importance of incorporating fresh, local, natural, and safe ingredients and best practices into your kitchen. But a lot of the time, that’s easier said than done – right?
When you’re tackling it alone, yes. However, with the help of a registered dietitian (RD), taking your healthcare dining program from good to great is not only possible but much easier.
From sustainability to person-centered dining, RDs are equipped with the knowledge and training specific to help you navigate the complexities of nutrition and dietary needs. They’re at the forefront of nutrition education and standards, so incorporating them into your healthcare community is almost a necessary requirement, given our current knowledge of how important dietary health is to people of any age. These benefits increase even more when you work in senior living and behavioral health care residential programs that require more nuanced nutritional care.
What is a Registered Dietitian?
Before we explain how RDs can be an asset to your healthcare community, let’s examine exactly what they do and their training requirements.
At the start of 2024, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) rolled out new requirements on what certifies an RD to practice. Instead of only a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree is now necessary to sit for the licensing exam. While this may seem like it makes things more challenging, it means that RDs will now match industry standards with other healthcare professionals you likely employ in your community, like nurse practitioners and clinical social workers.
RDs typically have a degree in nutrition science, meaning they receive training in food science, safety, and service. These professionals also specialize in life cycle and community nutrition education, food service systems, dietetics, and medical nutrition therapy.
How Registered Dietitians Enhance Your Dining Program
The long-term benefits of RDs of using your dining program are virtually endless. Because of their unique blend of expertise in nutritional knowledge, culinary skills, and compassionate care, RDs are a strategic investment in the overall well-being of your healthcare community.
Not Just an Asset, But an Investment
With the new requirements, you’ve probably thought about whether or not this will impact your community’s budget – and you’d be correct. Salary expectations for newly licensed RDs will likely increase in the upcoming months, so consider this when planning out any reallocations for your dining program funds. However, despite an added expense, having an RD as a member of your staff can maximize your Medicare reimbursement if you work with older adults by:
- Reducing hospital readmission rates through the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing (SNF BP) program, which provides incentive payments for high-quality patient care.
- Offering Medical Nutrition Therapy, a type of assessment, intervention, and analysis counseling that aligns a resident’s health goals.
- Performing assessments and quality measure reports on health outcomes like weight loss, fall risk, and UTIs.
Providing Person-Centered Care
By prioritizing the presence of RDs on your staff this year’s National Nutrition Month, you’re investing in the health and happiness of your residents – two of the many principles at the center of person-centered care. It is the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services’ (CMS) preferred method of care for long-term care, behavioral health, and other healthcare communities because of its focus on driving positive outcomes for residents on a long-term trajectory.
One of the best examples of how RDs provide person-centered care is their role in long-term care communities, where they work with older adults who may have various health conditions that impact the person’s nutritional health or ability to eat. Dysphagia, dementia, arthritis, and malnutrition require specialized diets, whether that includes changing the texture of foods to make it easier to eat or changing the foods on a nutrition plan to better align with a resident’s preferences. Either way, RDs make eating less of a chore and more of an enjoyable experience through these efforts by combining health needs with individual wants, effectively increasing the independence and overall quality of life for residents in your community.
Find a Registered Dietitian for Your Community with Culinary Services Group
At Culinary Services Group, we are big believers in the fact that dining can make or break a resident’s satisfaction and overall experience in healthcare. Since mealtime is often a source of gathering and fellowship, dietitians are valued members of our team because they help healthcare communities that partner with us make breakfast, lunch, and dinner an accessible and inclusive environment for everyone – on top of helping residents lead healthier, happier, and more nutritiously-conscious lives.
If adding an RD to your staff is on your to-do list this March, start celebrating National Nutrition Month by scheduling a consultation with a member of our sales team to learn about how our highly educated and trained RDs, customizable meal plans, and other unique dining factors can enhance your healthcare community’s dining program.
