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The current Broadmead Learning Cart team consists of Ann Patterson, Health Care Administrator, Meredith Hudkins, Assisted Living Manager, Stacey Young, Director of Lifestyles, and Teresa Geroulo, Director of Social Work. The team dons unique thinking caps to draw attention to themselves as they push the cart down the hall while gathering staff to offer a quick in-service. Learning Cart, the group gathered around a sink and sang “Happy Birthday” twice while a staff member washed her hands to learn the proper length of time for handwashing. Since the in-services are given in resident care areas, the residents often participate in many ways such as answering questions, singing, or laughing with the team in their funny thinking caps.

The current Broadmead Learning Cart team consists of Ann Patterson, Health Care Administrator, Meredith Hudkins, Assisted Living Manager, Stacey Young, Director of Lifestyles, and Teresa Geroulo, Director of Social Work. The team dons unique thinking caps to draw attention to themselves as they push the cart down the hall while gathering staff to offer a quick in-service. Learning Cart, the group gathered around a sink and sang “Happy Birthday” twice while a staff member washed her hands to learn the proper length of time for handwashing. Since the in-services are given in resident care areas, the residents often participate in many ways such as answering questions, singing, or laughing with the team in their funny thinking caps.

There are no agreed upon best practice standards for thickness, thinness, dryness or sizes of food among speech language pathologists, registered dietitians and nursing staff for diets used with dysphagia patients. Not providing appropriate care to residents with chewing and swallowing difficulties can result in thousands of dollars in civil monetary penalties with state surveys, not to mention millions of dollars in possible litigation. In 2017, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association together announced their support of this new global effort, the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI), to standardize diets for the treatment of people who suffer from swallowing disorders. * Educate families and marketing partners through newsletters and social media Needless to say, implementation of the IDDSI will take collaborative efforts with the facility’s registered dietitian nutritionist, speech-language pathologists, certified dietary managers, chefs, dietary staff, nurses and physicians — all working together for successful implementation.

There are no agreed upon best practice standards for thickness, thinness, dryness or sizes of food among speech language pathologists, registered dietitians and nursing staff for diets used with dysphagia patients. Not providing appropriate care to residents with chewing and swallowing difficulties can result in thousands of dollars in civil monetary penalties with state surveys, not to mention millions of dollars in possible litigation. In 2017, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association together announced their support of this new global effort, the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI), to standardize diets for the treatment of people who suffer from swallowing disorders. * Educate families and marketing partners through newsletters and social media Needless to say, implementation of the IDDSI will take collaborative efforts with the facility’s registered dietitian nutritionist, speech-language pathologists, certified dietary managers, chefs, dietary staff, nurses and physicians — all working together for successful implementation.