Katie Sprague

In-Service Education
St. Francis Hospital, Hartford, CT

Program Goals: Provide two 30-minute education sessions to the call center staff
on low sodium and diabetic diets.
Program Rationale: The employees in the call center help patients order all 3
meals each day. They have to adhere to each patients dietary restrictions and have
to guide patients through the ordering process. Each day they face patients who are
dissatisfied with their dietary restrictions, and have to help them understand what
menu items they can and cannot order. These education sessions were completed
to help the call center staff better understand two of the most common dietary
restrictions that patients at St. Francis have low sodium and consistent
carbohydrate/diabetic diet. The hope was that the call center staff would learn from
these sessions, and would be able to better assist patients in the ordering process
when they have these diet restrictions.
Audience: Diet office/call center staff (8 employees total)
SMART Objectives:
Low Sodium Lesson:
1. 75% or more of the call center staff will be able to distinguish the two most
common sodium restrictions at St. Francis Hospital by the end of this
education session.
2. After this lesson, 75% or more of the call center staff will identify the amount
of sodium per serving (in mg) that a patient on a sodium restricted diet can
consume from one food choice
3. After this lesson, 90% or more of the call center staff will be able to list a
meal from the St. Francis menu that fits within a low sodium restriction.
Diabetic Diet Lesson:
1. After this lesson, 90% or more of the call center staff will be able to identify
the diet order that is appropriate for diabetic patients at St. Francis Hospital.
2. After this lesson, 75% or more of the call center staff will be able to
distinguish the grams of carbohydrates in 1 serving.
3. After this lesson, 90% or more of the call center staff will be able to list one
vegetable that is high in carbohydrates.
Overview of content: I performed two 30-minute education sessions with the diet
office/call center staff, discussing low sodium and diabetic diets. This education
session included providing the staff with low sodium and diabetic diet nutrition
therapy handouts from the nutrition care manual. I went over the information on
each handout, explained what the dietitians teach the patients when providing diet
education to them, answered questions, and gave the staff a short quiz.
Visual aids/handouts: Each staff member was given a low sodium nutrition
therapy, and diabetes nutrition therapy handout from the nutrition care manual,
which they were able to keep after the education session. (I have included the two
handouts along with this presentation)
Cost analysis: I spent $0 on this education session. Downloading and printing the
handouts from nutrition care manual was free, along with creating and printing the
post quiz.
Evaluation tool: I have attached a copy of the evaluation tool, which was a post-
quiz I created for the staff members to take to assess the information they learned
during the session. This quiz was created based on the SMART objectives for the
lessons.
Evaluation of program:
- Learner of program:
o The post-lesson quizzes showed that all SMART objectives were met.
There were 8 participants, but only 7 completed the quiz. Out of those
7, each participant answered all 6 questions with 100% accuracy.
o The post quiz also included an additional section asking participants if
they learned something new, if the session was helpful, and if there
were additional comments. Of the 7 participants that handed in their
quiz, 6 responded that they learned something new, all 7 responded
that they enjoyed the session, and some additional comments were
Great class and Awesome.
o Based on the results of the quiz, it appears that the call center staff
enjoyed and learned from the education sessions.

- Professional staff evaluation of presenter: Both the food service manager

(Stephanie Wilson) and clinical dietetics manager (Amy Cote) were
present during my education sessions. I received positive verbal feedback
from both of these professionals, stating that I spoke well in front of the
group, answered questions appropriately, and educated the group
thoroughly on the two topics. Additionally, Amy Cote included comments
about my performance on this education session in my formal clinical
evaluation submitted at the end of my rotation via Survey Monkey.

- Self-evaluation: I believe that I did well teaching these education sessions.

Prior to the education sessions, I reviewed the information on the nutrition
care manual handouts, chose main points to focus on, created SMART
goals and a post-quiz. I felt comfortable speaking to the group and with
the information I was presenting. I emphasized the main points, and spent
time answering questions. After all questions were answered, I handed out
the post-quiz, and went over all answers once the quiz was collected.
Although I think I did well with these education sessions, if I were to do it
again I would include 1 or 2 more handouts for the staff, or possibly
include a PowerPoint presentation. However, with the time, space and
resources I was provided, I believe my education sessions were effective.
Suggested Future Plan:
- Since the response to these education sessions was so positive, I would
suggest repeating these focusing on different diet orders common at St.
Francis, such as Renal diet, fluid restriction, fat restriction, etc.
- One issue I faced while teaching these lessons was that some of the call
center staff was still on duty while I was teaching, therefore, if the phones
rang they had to answer and take the patients orders. I continued with
the lessons even if an employee was on the phone, but it was distracting
and then caused that employee to miss some information. In the future I
would recommend scheduling these meetings either before, after, or
during a break in the shifts so that all employees could benefit completely
from the information sessions.
- An additional suggestion for future would be to include a PowerPoint
presentation along with the handouts to engage the participants even
further. However, this was not possible in the call center because there
were not the appropriate resources. In order for this to work the education
sessions would need to be completed in a different room with access to
presentation tools.

References:
NCM Nutrition Care Manual Eat Right. Public Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 March
2017.