Standard  8: Fluids and Nutrition Answers

Fluid and nutrition are very important for our health and wellbeing. It is important to learn who is having balanced diet and who is at the risk of dehydration and malnutrition. As a carer, it is our duty to make sure the food that we prepare for elders are safe to eat and free of any contamination.

Please read and learn, do not copy.

Your answer can be completely different than mine. There is no ONE answer in Care Certificate.

Activity 8.1a Answer

Part 1). Answer

Basic principles of food safety:

1. Disinfect and clean: The surfaces, food, fruits and tools /machine all need cleaning before use. Besides this, clean your hands thoroughly before and after you touched anything that can spread bacteria.
2. Cook properly before serving: Make sure to cook the food such as meat, pork thoroughly and there is no pink (raw) in the middle.
3. Storage: Store food in sealed boxes and keep the food in cooling machine as fridge and frozen food in freezers. Food must be labeled well, dated and kept at correct temperature.
4. Cross contamination: Be mindful of the ways bacteria can be spread through hands, equipment and work surfaces. Staff must have different chopping boards and knives for different food. For example – White for bakery and dairy products, Yellow for cooked meat, Brown for root vegetables, Red for raw meat and Blue for raw fish.

Part ii). Answer

Food safety and hygiene is considered extremely important/crucial because it prevents the spread of micro-organisms (eg.pathogenic) in food. Besides this, having knowledge about the individual or resident I work with is important because they may not have capacity of understand what food safety and risk is related to allergy (e.g anaphylactic shock).

In MH care home, we have a resident PR who only eats chicken and fish, so our chef always prepares her food separately using different chopping board and labeling the food. Apart from, we had respite visit resident named DB who could only consume gluten free products. For him, gluten free food such as cakes, breads and many other were stored in kitchen cupboard and labeled. So that staff were aware about DB’s food preferences.

Moving on, we also follow COSHH guidelines where our surface cleaning products are securely stored away after use. So that resident cannot be exposed to any kind of risk.

Activity 8.1b Answers

Part i). Answer

Good nutrition and hydration are crucial in maintaining health and well-being of an individual. In order to work properly, our body needs timely and balanced diet filled with right nutrition. This is depicted well in ‘eatwell plate’, a model used in UK to tell a healthy diet and food groups suitable for most people. This model consists of ideally five groups from which a person can get good proportions of carbohydrates (eg bread, potatoes, rice or pasta) , vitamins (eg. Fruits and vegetables), minerals (e.g., Milk products, liver, shellfish), fibre (eg. Vegetables, nuts, bread and seeds) and protein (e.g., Meat, fish or beans).

Part ii). Answer

1. 5 – 2 litres(1500ml to 2000ml).
2. 10 glasses.

Activity 8.1c Answers

Part i) Complete the diagram

1. Muscle weakness. Gaining or losing weight.
2. Feeling tired at all times, lack of energy.
3. More falls, poor wound healing.
4. Increased infection (e.g., UTI).
5. Constipation.
6. Depression, changes in behavior.

Activity 8.1c Answer

Part ii)

1. Feelings of thirst as body tries to increase fluid levels.
2. Dark colored urine.
3. Headaches/tiredness and confusion.
4. Kidney stones and infections.
5. UTI, poor wound healing.
6. Constipation.

Activity 8.1d Answer

How to create a food and fluid chart for a dietitian referral care home Using NHFT

Also see Care Certificate standard 7 Answers