Obuzzerbee said "Yes, nurses will help feed their residents when their immediate duties are finished like handing out medications (which can take up to 2 hours). Feeding is the primary responsibility of the healthcare aides, but nurses should be helping when they have time.
Sometimes, the resident to staff ratio is so high that the staff will have to alternate feeding people, so it will look like some residents aren't eating, but that's not the case. There are just more people that need feeding than hands available, but all residents WILL get fed. That said... we DO NOT force feed. If a resident doesn't want to eat, dementia or not, we DO NOT force them. Care homes have regular snack times, so staff will always come back later and try to give them a snack. It is tracked and documented if a resident doesn't eat so we can follow-up throughout the day.
If the resident is on palliative care (in the process of dying), we do not feed unless the resident is capable of requesting something to eat, and even then it is usually something very small like juice or pudding. This is very rare.
Palliative residents will only receive oral care (moistened swabs) throughout the day. It is not safe to feed them as they typically cannot swallow and so the food/drink will go directly into their lungs.
Edited by Obuzzerbee, 2024-04-08 09:41:19"
Where I work, if resident is on palliative, we turn thenmevery 2 hours, get eye, oral and peri care and get lotiined as well.
I agree in everything you mentioned.