Bridge Project Home

Meals & Snacks

  > Schedule

  > Manual

  > Forms

About Us

The Bridge Project

Linking Research & Practice in Nursing Homes

Eat, Drink and Be Merry: Enhancing Meals & Snacks:

Researchers at Scripps Gerontology Center invite nursing home providers to enroll in a pilot-test of a distance learning course on improving meal and snack-time feeding assistance.

In this course, part of an applied research project, Dr. Sandra Simmons, professor at the Vanderbilt Center on Quality Aging and a nationally recognized expert on nursing home feeding assistance, will teach you how to:

• identify residents at risk of unintentional weight loss;
• enhance mealtimes and snack times so that these residents are likely to eat and drink more as a result; and
• individualize nutritional care in keeping with principles of person-directed care and in accordance with federal regulations.

The course features a series of 6 audio-teleconferences held over 7 months, with between-session coaching calls from project staff. Over the course, participants will not only learn how to improve nutritional care, but also receive ongoing support and assistance with implementing new care strategies. Online training materials and all the assessment forms needed to implement new care practices are also provided.

Who may participate:
Any nursing home serving long-stay residents may participate. Participating facilities must assign a nurse supervisor to serve as a project champion, obtain high level leadership support and commit to completing the course. The nurse supervisor is expected to attend all teleconferences, oversee fieldwork assignments, and submit brief progress reports.

Fees and CEs:
The course is offered at no charge to the first 20 nurse supervisors who enroll. Others may enroll for a course fee of $95 (covers all 6 teleconferences).

This activity will provide 12.33 contact hours for nurses. This continuing nursing education activity was approved by the Ohio Nurses Association (OBN-00191), an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. Approval valid through Oct. 13, 2011.

The course will also provide 13 contact hours for dieticians and dietetic technicians registered (DTRs). This continuing education actaivity was approved by Kindred Healthcare (K1846), a Continuing Professional Education Accredited Provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration(CDR).

To earn all approved CEs, nurses, dieticians and DTRs must complete a pre- and post-quiz, attend all teleconference, complete the assigned readings and field assignments and complete a course evaluation. CEs will be prorated based on attendance and completion of the other CE prerequisites.

Please call Principal Investigator Anna Rahman at (513) 258-4421 for more information about contact hours.

To Register:
Review, sign and submit the Consent to Participate form.

Training schedule:
Click here to view the 6-session training schedule.

Technology requirements:
A telephone is required to participate in the course’s audio-teleconferences. An unlimited number of staff members may participate if a speaker phone is used. Participating nurse supervisors must have access to an Internet-connected computer and be able to use email.

Training materials:
Click here to view the curricular materials—including course objectives.

Disclosures:
There are no conflicts of interest among course planners or presenters. The course is not sponsored or supported by a commercial entity.

For more information:
Contact Project Director Anna Rahman; rahmanan@muohio.edu

Scripps Gerontology Center : Miami University : Upham Hall Room 396 : Oxford, Ohio : 513.529.2914