Wisconsin Feeding Assistant Employment Requirements
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Assistant Program - Introduction
A long term care facility (nursing home or intermediate care facility for
individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICF/IID) may not employ or use
any individual as a feeding assistant unless the individual has:
Facilities must ensure feeding assistants only serve residents who have no
complicated feeding problems.
Residents with a clinical condition, such as the conditions listed above,
require the employee providing feeding or hydration services to be a
licensed health care professional who has received appropriate training
relating to feeding in conjunction with the education
for the professional licensure or nurse aide.
The facility must base their resident selection on the charge nurse’s
assessment and the resident’s latest assessment and plan of care. Feeding assistants
between 16 and 18 years of age require closer supervision; therefore,
they must work under the DIRECT supervision of a registered nurse
(RN) or licensed practical nurse (LPN), i.e., the RN or LPN must be on
the same floor or unit as the feeding assistant, but not necessarily
side-by-side. Feeding assistants 18 years of age or older must work
under the general supervision of an RN, or LPN. In an emergency, a
feeding assistant must immediately call a supervisory nurse on the
resident call system.
While the Department anticipates most feeding assistants will serve
residents in the dining room, feeding assistants are allowed to serve
residents in their own rooms.
The feeding assistant is not permitted to perform other nursing or
nursing-related duties (e.g., measuring or recording input or output,
transferring, toileting, etc.).
Feeding assistants must receive an annual in service on relevant feeding
assistant topics (any topic area included in the curriculum is
appropriate).
In addition, feeding assistants must be evaluated on a yearly basis to
document that their skill performance and feeding competence is
satisfactory.
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Last Revised:
May 23, 2013 |
