Short Staffed

I spent Monday and Tuesday in long-term care with a different dietitian. I really enjoyed talking with the patients, some of them are quite talkative, and I liked how the dietitian took the time to listen. I was a bit disappointed by how uncommunicative some of the patients are, and also how hard it is to understand some of them. I hope that with practice I will get better at understanding the patients. Some of the wards or “neighborhoods” have a common eating area and in other “neighborhoods” the residents are given trays in their rooms. The dietitian is trying to change it so that all of the neighborhoods have a common dining area, but making changes is not easy at the VA.

I was amazed by how much time is spent making sure that the patients in LTC are getting the food they want. This process involves talking with the patients, sometimes multiple times, and then spending another large chunk of time on the computer manipulating their diets. Their preferences are always changing and so the process is endless. Also, some of the diets have so many exceptions and substitutions the computer can’t always follow the orders, and so the dietitians have to periodically check to make sure the computer doesn’t bump things off a patient’s menu.

Today and for the next 2 days we are very under staffed and it is crazy! We have one RD and two diet techs, normally there are 3 RDs and 3 diet techs. I am working with the LTC dietitian, but she is the dietitian for the whole hospital right now. So instead of assessing LTC patients I am back working with the acute care patients, which is where I spent the last 2 weeks. It is definitely challenging since the RD now in charge doesn’t know the patients I am reassessing, and I am pretty overwhelmed at the moment. I can’t wait for the week to be over so I can have a chance to breathe. Despite feeling overwhelmed it is all very interesting, and I really like the LTC dietitian.

I also went to a meeting today on the NCP. The VA still uses SOAP notes but they want to switch to the NCP. My special project is to help them with the transition. I feel under-qualified, but the meeting was interesting.