In 2014, HealthShare NSW began the process of transforming the delivery of patient food services by piloting a new service delivery model. In May 2015, the Workforce Planning and Development Branch of NSW Health, commissioned Urbis to undertake research to improve understanding of key component of the allied health assistant workforce in NSW: the nutrition and dietetic assistant workforce. The key aim of this project was to improve understanding of the dietitian and nutrition assistant workforce in relation to the Food Services Meal delivery reforms occurring in NSW Health.
The Dietitian and Nutrition Assistant Workforce Mapping is a landmark report in that it has captured a clear understanding of how the dietary support workforce in NSW has developed over the years, across different worksites and under different management structures. Those involved in this research have confidence that the report provides valuable information about the different roles and domains of the dietary support workforce, including the historical, personal and contextual influences on their roles.is a landmark report in that it has captured a clear understanding of how the dietary support workforce in NSW has developed over the years, across different worksites and under different management structures. Those involved in this research have confidence that the report provides valuable information about the different roles and domains of the dietary support workforce, including the historical, personal and contextual influences on their roles.
The findings presented in the final report may be valuable to inform service planning in NSW Local Health Districts and will contribute to improvements in both the patient food experience during hospital stays, and patient nutritional outcomes.
In 2017, the Workforce Planning and Development (WPD) Branch in collaboration with HealthShare NSW commissioned Flinders University to undertake a project titled:
Reaching consensus on indicators of nutritional risk for development of systems based approach to improve adult inpatient outcomes
This project was initiated to support clinicians with the implementation of the My Food Choice reform across NSW by identifying nutritional risk indicators, and their associations with health outcomes, for inclusion in a future triage system. The objective of the system is to identify patients at nutritional risk, and to manage them accordingly, to improve patient outcomes and streamline workforce involvement.
The Consensus on Nutritional Risk Indicators project Report, includes a pencil-paper nutritional risk triage system (called the NutRI System) which is accompanied by a complementary training package for piloting, recommendations for psychometric testing, as well as recommendations for future digitalisation.
The Agency for Clinical Innovation Nutrition Network is currently examining the findings of the report to determine the next steps and suitability of implementation across NSW Health.
