Food Handling and Safety Training

Hello,

Welcome to Caring for You and our official first Nurse Educator journal entry. Topics and information relating to nursing and education from a Caring for You perspective will be the center of this blog.

Firstly, to introduce myself – I’m Lauren McIver and I have been a practicing Registered Nurse for 15 years, working in both the acute and aged care nursing sectors.

I was recently privileged enough to become the “Nurse Educator” with Caring for You.

Recently I delivered an education session to staff at a care facility in Melbourne, focusing on the topic of “Food Handling and Safety.”

Rira Cassarino, Ally Vlahek, and Corinna Maule during Food Handling & Safety Training.

Although this is not a common topic delivered by nurse educators to date, it was surprising to learn the number of nurses who are involved within the daily task of managing food.

It became apparent that within all the roles a nurse encompasses, “food handling and safety” should be a priority on the list. Cross contamination and education regarding the obligations of a food handler are of vital importance to every health care establishment.

Our education session covered the importance of possessing knowledge relating to cross contamination, hand hygiene, food storage, identifying a potentially hazardous food, bain-maries, and policies and procedures for reporting hazards.

The group expressed dismay at learning that in the right conditions a single bacterium could multiply into more than 2 million bacteria within seven hours and that our hands are predominantly the leading cause of contamination.

The education session went for approximately 30 minutes. All staff who attended will be issued with a ‘Certificate of Attendance’, that adds value to their portfolio and contributes to their CPD points.

I look forward to writing about our next education topic, “hand hygiene”.