Dining Assistant Training

The Vanderbilt Center for Quality Aging (CQA) collaborates with QSource to offer nursing homes a web-based training program designed to teach non-nursing personnel to assist with daily feeding.

This training curriculum is consistent with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation "Requirements for Paid Feeding Assistants in Long Term Care Facilities" (CMS C.F.R. 483.16), which allows facilities to hire single task workers and/or cross-train existing, non-nursing personnel (e.g., activities, dietary, housekeeping, volunteers) to help with daily feeding assistance care during and/or between regularly scheduled meals such as supplement and snack delivery. 

The eight-hour training, which is led by Vanderbilt faculty and staff specializing in gerontology, nutrition, nursing and social work, is available free to facilities via YouTube. All eight webinars and a post-test/evaluation must be completed for non-nursing staff members in order to provide dining assistance to residents in the state of Tennessee. However, individual webinars can be viewed by any staff member, including Certified Nursing Assistants, in any state for the purpose of on-going training.

 

Dining Assistant Training resources: 

  1. Training Curriculum
  2. Session Summaries and PowerPoint Slides
  3. Training Toolkit & Additional Activities (for in-person training)
  4. Research on Trained Dining Assistants  & History of Trained Dining Assistant Regulations

Supplemental Materials

The Allen Foundation funded the development and dissemination of a series of nutrition education and training videos for professional and family caregivers. 

Video content includes feeding assistance care techniques to encourage food and fluid intake among older adults with dementia. Techniques are evidence-based and designed to enhance independence in eating, dignity and choice. 

Researchers partner with local dementia care facility, Abe’s Garden, to develop and distribute the videos to dementia care providers within the community. These videos can be used in conjunction with the Dining Assistant Training.