Culture Change Best Practices:
Transforming the Dining Experience
Dining, food service, the way we offer meals—all of these aspects of
food have been radically changed by the fact that nursing homes are traditionally
modeled on a mini-hospital style of care delivery. In a hospital, the important
aspect of food is nourishment—not enjoyment. Nursing homes inherited
that focus on food. Culture Change asks us to bring enjoyment of food back
into the dining experience.
 Again, we must ask ourselves, as we look down
at a tray of bland, tasteless, colorless, hospital-style food served on a tray—“Is
this the way I would eat a meal in my own home?” Of course, the answer
is no. We look forward to meals because they not only satisfy our bodies’ needs
for nourishment they also appeal to our sense of taste, smell, sight and touch.
Eating is a pleasurable experience. Dining services in culturally-transformed
homes seek to bring all elements of pleasure and choice back to the residents.
Many
homes early in their progress on the Culture Change journey have started
their initial change with the type of foods they offer and the way they serve
meals.
Some of the initiatives that have been explored and adopted include:
- Family-style
dining (serving dishes with each course placed directly on the table; residents
serve themselves)
- All-hands dining (all levels of staff participate as wait
staff in the dining rooms during the meals)
- Buffet tables in the dining
rooms (so that residents can order exactly what they want)
- Steam tables
taken room-to-room (eliminating tray service; residents are served on
china directly in their rooms)
- Crockpots, bread machines and blenders on the neighborhoods
- Resident
and staff family recipes multiplied to serve the entire house
- Elimination
of
supplement shakes in favor of full-fat ice cream and fruit
smoothies
Ultimately, the idea behind radically changing the way we offer meals
in
the nursing home comes from a desire to not only nourish, but to delight
the senses as well. Outcomes from these initiatives have included decreases
in
weight loss, a reduction in supplement use, increased socialization, a
reduction in food costs, elimination of complaints to the kitchen, and increased
resident
satisfaction.
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