DON passing trays in dining room

Specialties LTC Directors

Published

I have been asked by my ADM to assist in the dining room passing trays, and checking diet orders. Do any of you do this. I dont mind on occasion, because this is the best way to know your residents. I enjoy it. But it takes about an hour out of my day, and this is asked of me every day now. And the worst part is that I get the dinner time slot. The ADON and MDS gets the day slots. This is because they are not salaried. This makes me work 12 hrs a day, every day. I dont like this at all, and am looking for a way to deligate it to someone else. The nurses are passing their own meds, and they cannot leave the floor. This just started because our census has grown so large that we had to do it that way. Corp will not let us have but 1 CMA. When I was hired on, the hrs were from 8- 4:30. Most days I work 10 hrs, with some room to move around and leave earlier if I like. Now Im kinda put off by having to stay every day until 7 pm. What do you think?

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
hello, what am I. A glorified office nurse?

Careful there, my friend.

Specializes in Orthopaedic Nursing; Geriatrics.

Maybe they need to change your working hours so that you are not working 12 hour shifts every single day. I personally feel that everyone in the facility should be passing trays, so if they want you to they should accomodate the hour change. In one facility I take students to, the Administrator, who is also an RN, serves the food along with the dietary manager! For two meals per day. I imagine she has better things to do and a lot of work stacking up while she is helping the kitchen staff but she is, nevertheless, helping.

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
Working the Dining Room every day is absolute Nonsense!

Do the staff nurses rotate the DR?

And if your Administrator is so concerned, why isn't she/he in there? :rolleyes:

Apparently they have a reg that says a NURSE must be in the dining room so if the administrator isn't a licensed nurse.....

Personally, I think it's absurd for the director to have to stay to be in the dining room. I'm sure I wouldn't

do it every day.

Specializes in LTC.
Maybe they need to change your working hours so that you are not working 12 hour shifts every single day. I personally feel that everyone in the facility should be passing trays, so if they want you to they should accomodate the hour change. In one facility I take students to, the Administrator, who is also an RN, serves the food along with the dietary manager! For two meals per day. I imagine she has better things to do and a lot of work stacking up while she is helping the kitchen staff but she is, nevertheless, helping.

I agree. The more help passing trays the quicker dinner gets started and the sooner everyone can go back to their work. If 3-4 people are doing it.. it will take about 15-20 minutes to pass all the trays and get everyone their meals. When even 1 more set of hands come in.. it goes a lot quicker.

As a med/charge nurse on the floor.. dinner time is in the middle of 4:30 med pass. So that gets pushed back to after dinner with whatever isn't done. We worked out a schedule between the units and we split the time in the dining room and it is working well for now.

Now its ridiculous for anyone to have to work over their time but, aside from that, its a great way to get to know the residents like a previous poster mentioned.

Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

I'm curious what happens on the weekend? If you aren't there, someone else much be, right? So can't you rotate during the week too?

At our facility ALL members of management and administration are required to do one meal a week in the dining room to pass drinks and generally organize and answer questions. So even the billing department and activities director do shifts. They are usually not nurses though, so I don't know how that would work for you.

I would be job hunting, because you have already allowed the ADM to get away with this, I don't see you going back....good luck

Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

As ADON I did it many times, but mostly it was 3-11 supervisor job. DON used to do lunch alot, sometimes dinner if she had visitors or families to impress. We had CNA's from each unit assigned (120 bed meant 4 units) also escpecially for feeders.

One time as ADON they changed my hrs so I could be there for breakfast,, then supposedly leave earlier but the "looks could kill looks" I got when I tried were horrible. I even reminded them in memo of change in my hrs but to not avail. So that meant they all came in at 9 and left at 5:30 (MDS, Social Worker, DON) and I came in at 6:30a and left at 5:30p....Everyone was salaried with no comp time. So after a month of trying to work with them I found another job. And they were all so surprised!

I would offer to do it one day a week and work out others for a daily schedule!!I have done it no matter my position, med nurse on up.

Specializes in Wound Care, LTC, Sub-Acute, Vents.
yeah the job of the cna is to take direction by the licensed nurse but, when it comes to simple things like that honestly its everyone's job to pass trays we are there to help those poor little resident not fight over whos gonna feed them lol nursing has become nothing but titles and people trying to pass work off on the poor women on the bottom of the pole..... good luck! theres no i in team work!!!! :D

please re-read my post. i said it is primarily the cnas responsibility in my facility. i do not "direct" them to do it. a memo was sent from management and it was included in the job descriptions of the cnas. and who said something about fighting? i also said in my post that i do help and pass trays most times even though dinner time is the "heaviest" med pass on my floor and when all the lab results come in and inform md of results. and by the way, the other nurse i work with don't do this. i'm the only one. we have 50 patients and two wings 25 each and 5 cnas on 3-11 shift.

Specializes in Wound Care, LTC, Sub-Acute, Vents.
ha ha i fell , i'am the 3-11 nurse supervisor at a snf and ltcf, sometimes i have to take a cna assignment and do all kinda things including pass trays and clean floors as needed lol, any way here is some ideas.....maybe try to run a vol program to pass trays?, dietary aides assistance?, have assigned people on certain days to stay over and help like maybe you on mondays, social worker on tues, admin on wed so on so fourth. i hope it works out for you

at least you get the supervisor pay when you clean floors. i do more than that. i mop floors, clean floors, pick-up broken plates/glasses from the floor. i also transfer tv from room to room and the beds as well. i can of course call the the housekeeping and maintenance for these things but i will not wait 1 hour and let my patient step on the broken glasses from the floor and let my lol patient keep screaming because her tv is not working. yeah so i will gladly take your supervisor pay and i'll be happy doing these things because it is for my patients.

and yep a nurse(lpn/rn) has to be in the dining room per regulation. it cannot be the social worker, or non-nurse staff.

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I can not find in the regulations in Massachusetts where it says a nurse has to be in the dining room. I asked someone from corporate once to show it to me, and she couldn't find it either.

The point is we ALL do what we have to do for the residents, but for the DNS to be expected to work 12 hour days just to pass trays is ridiculous and absurd.

Hello. I agree with the writer who said "...one idea is to have assigned people on certain days to help like maybe you on Mondays, social worker on Tuedays...". The point here is that professional delegation of tasks may be a good strategy for your situation. I have a hard working DON friend who she seems to have a little difficulty letting go of tasks in order to delegate work to others. My DON friend sometimes says "I am working extra hours, but I'd rather do it myself to make sure it gets done right". Unfortunately, some employers will "eat nurse managers alive" because they are salaried. Hope you will be able to work with your administrator to develop a plan for delegation of some tasks including the passing of food trays to your patients. Best wishes.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

We used to do something like this where administration took turns staying to cover the dining room. Friday nights were the pits. I decided to hire a ADON that works over the supper hour so that is covered. None of us others from administration do this anymore. It's nice because you also have consistency with the staff member being in their vs different folks on different days.

I help pass trays at supper- when they are short otherwise, nope.

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