Award for Excellence in Nutrition Care 2011 winner - Rodney Hodge
Congratulations to Rodney Hodge for winning NPA's inaugural Award for Excellence in Nutrition Care in memory of Gwen Kelsey.
Rodney is a most worthy winner of the award. He currently works as Support Services Manager of Edlercare Seaford. He has had a varied career - starting in restaurants, in hospital kitchens then in aged care. Rodney first started in health care working as a Chef at Flinders Medical Centre. He then moved to aged care with Uniting Care Westminster Village as Catering Manager for 3 years with Spotless. He moved to Masonic Village Somerton Park with Medirest as Chef/Manager for 18 months before moving to Eldercare.
Rodney was selected for the award as he demonstrates the values that Gwen lived by: every mouthful counts. Rodney stated that he considers that his position is 'a way to give our elderly community something back in return for what they have done for us'. He also said that he noticed when he first started working in aged care that residents really look forward to their meal times, except for residents on modified diets. These residents also have a lot of food supplements to enhance their health. He started working on different ways to serve the food so these residents could at least see that their meals have been presented in a way they would want to eat it.
He had challenges with equipment and limited resources as with most aged care facilities. Molds and equipment were expensive and it is hard to get facilities to spend money to do this. He found that piping the vegetables and making different styles of pates made from different meats was something he could easily do with minimal costs. In these meals he found he could then add bran, eggs, cheese and different vegetables in with the meat choices to get as much nutrition into the resident's meals in one sitting. Residents on modified diets will quite often miss meals so Rodney believes that you need to get as much into them when they feel like eating. He said that he is always looking in shops for different molds and equipment to offer residents something different and some variety in their diet. He uses fresh ingredients and rarely uses ready made products.
Rodney was awarded his certificate and prize by Mr Gary Kelsey (Kitchen Manager - Lyell McEwen Hospital) at a special awards ceremony in Nutrition Professionals Australia's North Adelaide rooms.
Award for Excellence in Nutrition Care
Nutrition Professionals Australia have great pleasure in announcing our new Award for Excellence in Nutrition Care in honour of the late Gwen Kelsey. Gwen was a Dietary Aide based in the hospital setting and devoted her working life to helping individuals to improve their nutrition. She always found innovative ways to present foods so that people enjoyed their meal and ate more.
The Award for Excellence in Nutrition Care is intended for individuals who are currently working with older people either at home or in an aged care facility.
The successful person may be a cook, chef, catering manager, carer, nurse or manager.
Some or all of the following criteria will be used when deciding the successful applicant:
Innovation in delivery of nutrition care
- Can identify a unique approach to some aspect of food service or delivery of special diets
- Demonstrates creative ideas or an innovative approach
- Ability to embrace new ideas
- Improved nutrition of individuals in their care
- Applicant goes above and beyond the call of duty
- Demonstrated leadership in delivery of nutrition care
- Demonstrates high quality of work
- Has a flexible approach
- Inspires others to improve their approach to nutrition care
- Caring and compassionate approach
Applicants can nominate themselves or can be nominated by others using the nomination form. Please include a copy of your CV. If nominating yourself, please include letters of support from 2 referees in your organisation. If nominating a third party, please include one letter of support from another individual in your organisation.
Closing date for 2012 is 31st March 2012.
Successful applicants will receive a certificate and a cash prize of $200. The prize will be presented by Mr Gary Kelsey, Kitchen Manager, Lyell McEwen Hospital at a special function.
Please post nomination form to:
Nutrition Professionals Australia
267 Melbourne St
North Adelaide SA 5006
Or email to:
admin@npagroup.com.au
2010 Winner - Janet King
Janet King was the inaugural winner of NPA's Award for Excellence in Nutrition in memory of Gwen Kelsey.
Janet is a most worthy winner of the award. In 2010 she was working as Hospitality Service Coordinator at Regency Green Aged Care Facility. Her career has spanned over 30 years, with hospitality being the primary focus. Janet has always endeavoured to provide well balanced and nutritional meals to residents to keep them healthy and happy. Janet was selected for the award as she demonstrates the values that Gwen Kelsey lived by: that every mouthful counts. She works in a challenging environment, with multiple cultural requirements, the usual dietary requirements and a decentralised cook chill system. Janet works diligently to achieve the best for her residents, from bringing in special food for multicultural days, to printing large print copies of the menu to place behaind the residents' doors so that they know what is coming up next.
Janet has attended NPA's 2 day Nutrition and Special Diets in Aged Care Seminar and has implemented a number of initiatives in her facility to improve nutrition care. She inspires others to achieve more. She is caring and compassionate and a worthy recipient of the award.
Janet was awarded her certificate and prize by Mr Gary Kelsey (Kitchen Manager - Lyell McEwen Hospital) at a special awards ceremony in Nutrition Professionals Australia's North Adelaide rooms.
