Nutrition Assistant II

Founded in 1941, Dignity Health - Dominican Hospital is a 188-bed, acute care, nonprofit hospital located in Santa Cruz, California. Serving over 80,000 patients annually, the hospital offers a full complement of services including heart care, orthopedics, and a Family Birthing Center. Additionally, Dominican Hospital has been recognized as an LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality High Performer by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. It is a Joint Commission-certified Primary Stroke Center, and has been awarded the AMA/ASA’s Get the Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement, recognizing the hospital’s commitment to providing the best stroke care.

One Community. One Mission. One California 

As a Nutrition Assistant, you will assist in delivering high-quality, safe, and efficient food services to patients and staff.

Every day you will prepare and deliver meal trays, assist with food preparation, maintain cleanliness, ensure food safety compliance, and interact with patients regarding dietary needs.

To be successful, you will demonstrate meticulous attention to detail, strong food safety knowledge, and excellent customer service, contributing to a positive dining experience.

• Prepares and serves food within guidelines of menu and dietary requirements using required kitchen utensils and equipment. Maintains knowledge of recipe ingredients to respond to food allergy questions or requests.
• Follows healthcare foodservice industry standards, regulations, guidelines and procedures including monitoring and maintaining food temperatures during cooking, holding, and storage processes. Avoids cross-contamination of foods and adheres to personal hygiene requirements. Maintains proper labeling of food products and ensures storage of food equipment, and machinery per regulations and facility guidelines.
• Follows organizational standards and guidelines for a high quality patient and customer experience. Ensures proper meal portioning and an aesthetically pleasing presentation. Provides service recovery efforts and escalates to leadership as needed.
• May be responsible for one or more of the following:
  
  
  • Following therapeutic diet modifications and guidelines including allergy restrictions for all patient meal trays, nourishment, snacks and supplements
  
  
  
  • Printing, providing and following production tool and/or electronic meal tallies/differentials for food preparation
  
  
  
  • Explaining basic therapeutic diet orders and menus and responding to questions from patients and family members. Escalating additional patient nutrition questions or needs to appropriate clinical support team members.
  
  
  
  • Collecting patient food preferences and ensuring compliance with prescribed diet orders. Distributing food preferences to kitchen for menu planning in a timely manner.
  
  
  
  • Operating electronic diet office software and tools following established procedures and protocols.
  
  
  
  • Navigating electronic health records to access patient diet orders and nutritional reports.
  
  
  
  • Performing general cleaning of equipment and work areas (e.g., cleaning the tray line, equipment, coolers, office area, and emptying trash cans, etc.)

Required

• One (1) year food service experience
• High School Graduate or GED
• Equivalent combination of education and experience