 We never thought about it, but being a patient in a hospital can be very lonely. And for a lonely patient, mealtimes can be a highlight of the day. Providing all those meals is a big job and an important thing. Because to help the patients get better, they must get the right food. The food that the doctor and the dietitian ordered. So your job isn't like in some restaurant, no indeed. It's got a lot more to it than that. You're one part of a whole complicated system that it takes to get the right food to every patient at every meal. It all begins when a new patient is admitted to the hospital. For example, this lady just checking in. Mrs. Taylor's ulcer has been acting up, so her doctor has put her in the hospital for some tests. And because of her ulcer, she'll need special food. From now until the time her first meal tray arrives, a lot of things will have to happen. The doctor starts it all when he makes up his orders, saying what he wants her to have in the way of medicines and food. He's like the head of a team. And the team is, doctor, patient, dietitian, and you. From the doctor's orders, the nurse sees that he wants Mrs. Taylor to have a bland diet. She adds Mrs. Taylor's name to the ward diet roster. Meet Mrs. Meadows. At this hospital, her job is called diet aid. In other hospitals, she might have a different title, but the duties would be similar. She's one of the people who comes around to collect the diet roster from each ward. At some hospitals, the diet aids don't need to do this, if there's a pneumatic tube system or some other way of collecting the paperwork. One way or another, the rosters all go down to the clinical dietetics branch. The diet aid checks the rosters against her file cards. She has a card for each patient. These are called dietary history record cards. She checks each name on the roster. If the doctor has ordered any change in the patient's diet, Mrs. Meadows enters it on the card for that patient. When she finds Mrs. Taylor's name on the roster, she makes up a card for her. The diet aids go through every patient in the hospital like that. Every single one, to make sure they have all the diet information all up to date. It's not just paperwork, either. It has to be done right, or the patients won't get the right food. The doctors are counting on them getting the right food so they can get better. Now, what's Mrs. Taylor going to have for dinner? A lot of different menus to choose from. And it's important for the diet aid to pick out the right one. You remember Mrs. Taylor is on a modified diet. Don't afford to make any mistake about it. There's a menu plan that one of the clinical dietitians works up for every meal. The plan lists all the different kinds of food that will be prepared. The diet aid uses it to make up Mrs. Taylor's menu for supper. By the time she's through, the diet aid has checked to see that she has a menu for every patient and that everyone is correct. And she's made up Trey ID tags to go with them. Meanwhile, other members of the team have been busy, too. It would be easier to feed all those people if everyone was eating the same thing. But that's not the way it is in a hospital. Some patients have to have food with no salt. And some with no sugar, or fat restricted, or bland. And the patients are all depending on you to make their food good, and cook it right, and serve it right. There are a lot of good cooks in Army hospitals, and many of them started out in low-level jobs and moved up. Moved up to better pay and more responsibility. It takes a lot of teamwork to get all those meals out three times a day. Teamwork. Not just to get the meals done, but to get them done the way the doctor and the dietitian ordered, the way the patients need them. When you're doing so many trays, it might not seem to make much difference if you get things wrong now and then. But if you were sick in the hospital, you wouldn't want to be served food that made you feel sicker. Every tray, every dish has to be just what the menu slip calls for. Maybe you never thought about it, but you have an important part in helping patients along on the road to better health. It'd make things a lot easier if there weren't always those last-minute changes. But a hospital isn't like that. There are people who arrive just around mealtime, before the doctor sees a patient and decides to change her diet. And every time that happens, it means a change in the meal service. The nurse phones down the new diet information to the clinical dietetics branch. Nobody likes to redo things in the middle of getting a meal out, but part of your job is giving the best possible service to the patients. And the best possible service means there are going to be changes at every meal. So you may as well learn to live with it and don't let it give you an ulcer. As she does her work, the Diet Aid has a good chance to meet the patients and to talk to a lot of different people. Patients that aren't on a particular diet get to select their own food from a number of choices. While the Diet Aid is going around picking up their menu slips, she can talk to them. It means a lot to the patients when somebody from food service asks if everything is all right with their meals. And then she can pass any problems or complaints on to the dietitian. This kind of thoughtfulness is the difference between just doing a job or really being part of a good team. The thing else that you might want to tell me about your food tolerances that I've not asked already. Of course, the dietitian talks to patients too. Do you happen to dislike any food right off hand that you can think of? I don't care for liver. Don't care for liver? No. She has a big job, making up the overall food plans for the entire hospital. But she takes the time to find out the patient's likes and dislikes. These will be entered on Mrs. Taylor's card and the Diet Aid will use them in making up her menus. This is an important part of seeing that each patient is as comfortable and well looked after as possible. Now, if you should have any problems with your diet, there will be someone around to see you at least once a day. OK? Thank you very much. Thank you. Goodbye. Bye. Naturally, the dietitian isn't going to let any patient have foods that aren't good for them. She talks to the doctors about the proper menu whenever there's a question. You know, they say you get out of a job what you put into it. I guess that's as true of food service work as anything else. Dishwashing is a part of food service work too. It may seem routine and unimportant, but it isn't. The machine has to be operated properly and the temperature can't just right up. And you've got to know when something's wrong and take responsibility for telling the supervisor. Because if the dishwashing isn't done thoroughly, germs from one sick patient could spread around the hospital. So the dishwashers are as much a part of the team as anybody else in food service. For Mrs. Taylor and for the sergeant and all the other patients in the entire hospital, you are part of the behind-the-scenes work they don't get to see. But they know you're there working for them. They appreciate what you're doing every day at every meal. They're depending on you to do your job well. Mrs. Taylor says it for all the patients. Thank you. Thank you very much.