This week its ‘National Nutrition and Hydration Awareness Week’
There are many elements relating to nutrition and hydration on which we focus on within the Lane Fox Remeo Respiratory Centre at Redhill Surrey. Here’s a taster of what we do:
Mouthcare Matters
Optimum Mouth Care is important to help prevent and improve outcomes of pneumonia.
Oral assessment, correct oral hygiene, staff training and audit are all key to achieving this. Consultant dental specialist Milli Doshi and her team regularly review our patients at Lane Fox Remeo. Dr Milli Doshi is a lead on Mouthcare matters for HEE and their website is full of resources from assessment forms to training material – https://mouthcarematters.hee.nhs.uk/
Milli Doshi and her team and have supported Remeo to ensure staff have the right skills to deliver mouthcare to respiratory complex care patients.
Access to dental services for people has been limited over the last 2 years so its essential that we do everything we can to continue to support the dental care of those who come into our services. We do this through:
- Training our staff to have the right knowledge and skills
- Liaisng with Milli Doshi and her team when dental referrals are required
- Mouthcare promotion events
- Provision of specialised mouthcare product choices
- Audit and monitoring of staff mouthcare documentation, observations and care provision
Further information on mouthcare can be found at NICE https://www.nice.org.uk/about/nice-communities/social-care/quick-guides/improving-oral-health-for-adults-in-care-homes
Hydration and Wellbeing
Keeping clinical staff hydrated at work is vital to their wellbeing and concentration in the workplace
Nurses have been found to walk an average of 3 to 6 miles in a 12-hour shift (RCN 2018)
At Remeo we have:
- Strategically placed water coolers within the Centre
- Encouraged staff to have their water bottles on duty with them
- Placed the RCN ‘Are you hydrated’ posters strategically on toilet doors. https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/pub-006704
It all helps maintains a healthy workplace!
Nutrition
Nutrition is a complex area for those with long term respiratory conditions. Nutritional assessment, audit of care and dietetic input are key components in achieving quality nutritional care. One of the simplest ways to encourage oral intake is how you present the food to your patient. At Remeo we pride ourselves on our 5 star food hygiene rating and our food presentation.