Self Directed Learning Program

Description of Self-Directed Learning Program

 

 

 

 

Dietitians should focus on high level clinical nutritional interventions while delegating technical and support functions to diet technicians. A patient's nutritional care plan is only effective when the patient is consuming their meals and snacks. Diet technicians hold the expertise for obtaining patient food preferences. Many patients would greatly benefit from regular visitation by a diet technician. The literature provides support for expansion of the Diet Technician's role in health care (1-4).

Dietitians are accountable for the nutritional care diet technicians provide. Therefore, dietitians employed by ARAMARK Canada Ltd. at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (Toronto Rehab) developed a Self-Directed Learning Program for Diet Technician Training. The program consists of three interrelated training modules prepared in PowerPoint, enhanced with graphics, written exercises and answer keys the preceptor can hide and later reveal. The training modules are "generic" in that they can be adapted for use in any adult health care setting from acute to long-term care facilities.

References:
1. Arena J, Walters P. Do you know what a dietetic technician can do? A focus on clinical technicians and their expanded roles and responsibilities. J Am Diet Assoc 1997;97(suppl 2):S139-S141.

2. Brown D and White JV. RDs and DTRs - partners in practice. J Am Diet Assoc 2000;100(12):1448.

3. Hedberg A, Garcia N, Trejus IJ, Weinmann-Winkler S, Gabriel ML and Lutz AL. Nutritional risk screening: development of a standardized protocol using dietetic technicians. J Am Diet Assoc 1988;88(12):1553-1556.

4. Hilovsky CS, Zolber KK, Abbey DE, Connell BC, Burke KI. Utilization of the clinical dietetic technician. J Am Diet Assoc 1986;86(8):1028-1032.

Learning Module 1: Nutrition Staff Performing Patient Visitation

 

This introductory module is geared to all nutrition staff and includes 18 written exercises (in scenario format) coupled with informative answer keys.
 

Learning Objectives:
•	To be able to describe what "patient confidentiality" means.
•	To understand how to obtain patient food preferences.
•	To practice the steps in responding to food service complaints and issues.
•	To understand when to inform a dietitian.
Purpose:
•	All Nutrition staff who interact with patients should have basic patient visitation training.

Learning Module 2: Diet Technicians Performing Nutritional Intervention

The second module provides an in-depth learning experience and includes ten multi-faceted questions with corresponding answer keys intended to challenge diet technicians and augment their learning experiences.

Learning Objectives:
•	To be able to implement the guidelines for diet technicians performing nutritional interventions.
•	To be able to discern when you must confer with a dietitian before taking action, i.e., understanding your limits.
•	To know how to maximize your potential contribution to direct patient care.
Purpose:
•	Diet technicians (who assist dietitians) can greatly support dietitians in patient care delivery provided they have adequate training. Detailed guidelines for various nutritional interventions were developed encompassing food sent at meals; snacks between meals; weight trends; fluid balance; and monitoring biochemistry.

Learning Module 3: Diet Technicians Documenting in the Patient Health Record

The final module introduces new content while tying together previously learned material. It includes ten questions with corresponding answer keys to provide practice documenting nutritional interventions in the Patient Health Record.

Learning Objectives:
•	To understand the policies and procedures for documenting in the patient health record.
•	To know when to document nutritional interventions in the patient health record.
•	To be able to write informative and concise notes in the patient health record.
•	To be able to implement the guidelines for diet technicians completing nutrition screens.
Purpose:
•	Because diet technicians must document the care they provide in the patient health record, it is important they receive appropriate training to know what, where, when and how to document. This module is at an advanced level, providing background for performing nutritional screens.

User Guide

A User Guide was developed to accompany this training program, detailing:

1.	Roles and responsibilities of both the preceptor and the learner.
2.	Tips for maximizing the Diet Technician's learning experience.
3.	Resources specific to your facility that should be accessible to the Diet Technician.
4.	Tips for integrating the practical experience.
5.	Obtaining formal approval for Diet Technician documentation in the patient health record.
6.	Closing ideas for future development of the Diet Technician's role at your facility.

Technical information has been included to facilitate the learning experience:
 

1.	Instructions on how to hide and unhide the answer keys.
2.	Instructions on how to use the hyperlinked table of contents and other summary slides to quickly jump to specific sections of the presentation.
3.	Instructions on how to print handouts to accompany the learning experience.

How to order

The Self-Directed Learning Program for Diet Technician Training is comprised of three modules plus a user guide and is available for $300.00 (Canadian) plus 13% taxes (applicable in Canada only). The Learning Program is sent to you via e-mail. Price subject to change.

Please send a hospital cheque or money order payable to:
Nutrition Services, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Please mail to:
Attn: Deborah Wildish, Manager, Clinical Nutrition
550 University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5G 2A2

Please provide an e-mail address for whom the electronic package should be sent.

We can also e-mail an electronic invoice.

All revenue generated will be designated to support clinical nutrition education at Toronto Rehab.

If you have any questions, please contact us.