Meal preparation is often overlooked with client and caregiver matching – learn why it’s important and how to prepare your caregivers to be master chefs.
When I worked as a client care manager, one of our caregivers was chronically late and sometimes neglected important care tasks. Despite these incidents, his work was invaluable to the client because of how good his breakfasts were.
We wanted to replace him, but the client wanted him as the primary caregiver because the food he made was delicious. It was eye-opening to recognize how much of this client’s experience with our agency was shaped simply by the quality of this caregiver’s cooking.
This isn’t to say that it’s ever acceptable to overlook necessary care tasks, but you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of meal preparation and good-tasting food on a client’s overall quality of life.
Malnutrition is also a common issue in older adults; eating too much and too little food that lack nutritional benefits. Did you know that 50% of this age group is at risk of being malnourished, according to the Public Health Post? Disease-related malnutrition, lack of training, and other factors are not addressed by the American healthcare system in older adults.
As a home care agency, you have an opportunity to directly confront these disparities and provide your clients with quality care which includes healthy and good-tasting meals.
Some of the reasons that caregiver cooking skills are important include:
Here are some tips to help your caregivers cook more effectively for your clients.
You can have caregivers with A+ practical skills, but do they also have A+ cooking skills?
Your caregivers need to have the skills required to take care of clients and address their health concerns. Meal preparation is a key skill that you should be evaluating, as it’s a critical part of health maintenance and prevention.
When meal prep is done wrong, your clients may not want to have a certain caregiver back – irrespective of their other care-related skills.
Meals are important to clients; food may be one of the few things that they have left to enjoy. Clients may even complain about the cooking skills of your number one caregiver, but how meals are cooked and eaten can greatly affect a client’s independence, dignity, and satisfaction.
When hiring caregivers, it’s important to evaluate their practical skills–but don’t underestimate the importance of their cooking skills.
Cooking is easily and too often overlooked.
Because most caregivers have basic cooking skills, it’s all too easy to make assumptions about their skills instead of ensuring competency. Many chronic conditions that your clients are living with affect what they can and can’t
When matching clients and caregivers together, you need to consider chronic condition compatibility. But have you placed equal emphasis on dietary restrictions and the meal preparation skills required for these needs?
One client that we interviewed for satisfaction surveys said that she asked her caregiver for a grilled cheese sandwich. The caregiver stuck cheese on a piece of bread, then put it in the toaster—creating a huge mess.
Not all situations are that extreme. However, when they are unable to boil water, clients must rely on caregivers for assistance. By placing more emphasis on cooking, your clients will be more satisfied.
You might be familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – a psychological theory of human needs in order of priority. Food is located on the bottom rung of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for a reason—it’s a basic need required for survival.
What order are you using to address your client’s dietary needs? Do they follow Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Having caregivers who are exceptionally good cooks is an opportunity to wow your clients.
Once your caregivers are adequately trained and informed on their clients’ dietary needs, they can prepare foods that go above and beyond. Good cooking will help your caregivers impress clients when other care tasks may be more difficult to deliver the “above and beyond” standard.
Your goal is to provide exceptional care, but it’s an everyday struggle to balance the needs of each client. Your clients have seen your reviews and have set the bar high for the care you provide. It’s hard to give the “wow” factor to each of them.
Most caregivers can cook basic dishes like pasta, chicken, breakfast sandwiches, etc. Taking into account a client’s dietary restrictions and creating delicious, visually appealing dishes elevates their cooking to an even higher level. You can take it a step further by encouraging caregivers to start grocery lists and to routinely check the fridge/freezer for expired foods.
Every client wants the “above and beyond” standard of care, and this could potentially lead to your agency’s differentiator: caregivers with culinary skills that match your high standard of care.
Caregiver’s Kitchen: Cooking for Chronic Conditions Learning Path
With all of this in mind, Home Care Pulse is pleased to offer a series of online training courses that help your caregivers become great chefs.
Our training also highlights the importance of mealtime for clients who live with a chronic condition. We created a learning path and certification for caregivers, Cooking for Chronic Conditions. In this 5-module series, your caregivers will learn:
Mealtime with Diabetes: This course covers the two types of diabetes and their causes. It shows students how to cook delicious, carb-conscious meals for clients.
Mealtime with COPD: Caregivers learn about the respiratory system anatomy, and how to select foods to use in their cooking, and which items to avoid for COPD.
Mealtime with Alzheimer’s and dementia: This module goes over the importance of nutrition and hydration, how to consume food and drinks safely. It also goes over how to cook and serve food that appeals to all senses.
Mealtime with Food Allergies & Celiac Disease: In this module, caregivers learn about common food allergies. They also learn how to read a nutrition label, and how to serve meals without gluten.
Mealtime with Cardiovascular disease: Caregivers learn how to be heart-healthy in general and in terms of their clients’ diets. They also learn how to make heart-healthy food using the DASH diet.
At the end of the specialty caregiver certification, your caregivers will know how to make chicken medallions in white wine sauce and baked spinach with egg cups. How good does that sound? Your caregivers will earn Chronic Condition Specialist badges with the cooking skills to prove it.
Cooking with your clients in mind.
The great author Virginia Woolf once said, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Your clients will agree. Cooking isn’t the only aspect to focus your efforts on, but it can be a tool in improving client satisfaction.
Show clients and their family members that you care by upgrading your caregivers’ cooking skills specifically for chronic conditions. This will help shift the focus from task-based care to client-centered care.
Competition is stiffer than ever for home care. You can show how you’re different by training caregivers to be more sensitive to the culinary and meal preparation needs of your clients.
Each of your clients is different, and each deserves a unique menu of options for mealtime. So, what’s on the menu for tonight?
I am a 19 year veteran as a home agency caregiver. I am mature in age and find many clients who appreciate that. I work 3 hour shifts mostly and have many tasks to do within that time frame. Cooking elaborate meals is impossible with all the other needed care my clients need like being bathed, dressed, hair care, lite housekeeping, trash taken out, beds made and linen changed and laundry washed and dryed and folded then grocery shopping. Cooking breakfast lunch and leaving dinner has to be prepared sometimes a dayahead to be warmed up for later. I can make all the meals using all the basic food groups but I AM NOT A CHEFF!!! I resent your article implying we have the time or duty to fix elaborate meals.
Hi Melanie!
Thank you for the hard work that you do, I’m sure your clients enjoy having your expertise. I agree, I believe that the time that caregivers have to cook is limited, however, some agencies may not provide adequate training to caregivers who may not know how to cook, and it’s important to let agencies know about the significance of nutrition support when it comes to chronic conditions. There is not enough time in the day to cook chef-like meals, but many clients have dietary restrictions or may have family members taking time to prepare meals that caregivers may be able to help out with. Thank you for your insights!
I’m just home from vacation, and now preparing for our annual visit from the state to monitor our agency.
However, I think your emails are fun and informative, and I know nothing about you, so can we get better acquainted in November?
In the meantime, I do read and appreciate the emails you send.
Sincerely,
Hi Lynn!
We would love to meet with you, feel free to schedule a no-pressure meeting with one of our team members and to see how we can help your home care agency: https://www.homecarepulse.com/demo/?src=menu_cta. Thank you so much for your kind words!
As a caregiver who has been in the business for over 20 years, I absolutely agree on adequate training based on client’s dietary needs, as the is essential and in some cases necessary for safety reasons. Where most of us draw the line is preparing foods that go above and beyond. We are not hired to impress or wow clients with cooking skills. Being a great cook is beneficial but should not be expected. Some patients can be out right demanding and unrealistic such as preparing meals based on texture and features rather than nutrition. I understand your position
but here is a fine line as most caregivers are burnt out on patient demands, temperament and duties.
I’m a mature caregiver working live-in. My clients are in late 80’s, frail, and have chronic health conditions. In addition, one has late stage Dementia, mildly incontinent, is an eloper, and hostility and psychosis are difficult to manage. The other is in recovery for a broken hip, awaiting a reverse shoulder replacement, has kidney, heart, and liver conditions, and though ambulatory, needs a walker.
I take care of two people whose schedules, behavior, and needs are unpredictable. My experience is that client based care is a daily “triage” of what is most important that day in that moment for the individual client.
Not only have I two individuals to care for with many needs, I also take care of their 1600 sf house, yard and exterior cleaning, laundry, all house cleaning, shopping for food, clothes, sundry, home maintenance and repair items. There are many home maintenance tasks I do that are above an beyond what should be expected, such as washing windows, cleaning out a cat box for 3 cats, feeding and cleaning up after 3 cats, window washing, wall washing, car washing, minor home repairs and troubleshooting before service repair is called. I do ALL cooking and serve them their food in their recliners in the living room, then clean up after every meal. I drive them to appointments, gas the car, and take the car in for maintenance and repair. My day starts at 6am, earlier if the person with Dementia gets up and begins wandering and foraging for food.
Having been to Culinary School, and being an accomplished cook and baker, for this position, cooking easy, simple, family style food is acceptable. If the caregiver has the ingredients, the skills, and the time to put together anything beyond that, it’s their choice. If you want a Chef, hire one and pay them accordingly.
Your expectation that a caregiver cook “restaurant quality” meals to “wow” their clients is beyond ridiculous. This job requirement will deter applicants to enter this profession or stay. There is a severe shortage of quality Caregivers interested in this as a career, and your implications and expectations will only drive workers out of this business, not attract them. Hospitals have an entire separate staff that handle dietary planning and medical needs, meal preparation, and food service. They certainly don’t expect doctors, nurses, etc. to become Chefs to “wow” the patients/ clients.
The anecdotal example you gave of a caregiver being asked to make a “grilled cheese sandwich”, and putting two pieces of bread with a piece of cheese sandwiched in between them into a toaster? That kind of a mistake is on the company’s HR and the job interviewer who obviously failed to ascertain whether or not the applicant was familiar with common American cooking appliances, and making commonly requested food. The “Grilled Cheese” example led to visions of that same caregiver making “toast” by holding a piece of bread on a fork over a range burner or an open flame, or putting metal objects into a microwave. Most adults know better, and if they don’t know, they will ask for direction.
Caregiving is a demanding, high emotional labor, back-breaking job/ profession, with a large body of caregivers being underpaid, overworked, and under appreciated. Why not open up a subsidiary or branch of your business that provides chef inspired and prepared frozen meals to be delivered to the client and baked or microwaved by the caregiver?