Nutrition and Hydration Awareness in Care Settings

This nutrition and hydration training helps care staff recognise when someone is at risk of malnutrition or dehydration and support them to eat and drink well. It is written for care workers, senior carers, healthcare support workers, nursing assistants, nursing associates, nurses and catering staff in residential, nursing, domiciliary, supported living and hospital settings across the UK.

Malnutrition is common and often hidden. It is easy to put weight loss down to "just getting older", and dehydration in an older person can look like their usual confusion until they fall or develop a urinary infection. The course shows how problems build on each other: a person who is dehydrated becomes muddled and falls; a person who is losing weight loses muscle, becomes frail and develops pressure damage. It also treats eating and drinking as more than fuel. Meals give shape to the day and carry memories, culture and identity, and the course keeps that in view throughout.

It is designed to take about 2 hours, including reading, reflection points, a reflective account and a 15-question assessment, and is self-paced. You buy and take it on our course portal; the course catalogue lists related titles. Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with any UK regulator, inspectorate or the NHS, and none of them has reviewed this course.

Meeting people's nutritional and hydration needs is a legal requirement in every UK nation. Module 1 sets out what applies where you work.

The capacity sections refer to the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. Registered nurses will recognise the links to the NMC Code; HCPC-registered dietitians, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists appear throughout as the professionals care staff refer to.

1. Why nutrition and hydration matter

How food and drink support immunity, skin, muscle strength, bowel and bladder function, mood and recovery; a table of risk factors from frailty and dementia to poor oral health, medicines and fear of incontinence; the law in each nation; and who does what in the team. A domiciliary case shows how untouched sandwiches and loose trousers led to a GP review and treatment for toothache.

2. Recognising malnutrition and dehydration

The five steps of MUST and what low, medium and high risk usually mean for care; the signs of malnutrition, including in people living with obesity; refeeding risk; early and serious signs of dehydration; why urine colour charts are unreliable in older people; and a weighing checklist so that a 2.5 kg loss is reported straight away rather than saved for next month.

3. Supporting people to eat and drink well

Mealtimes that work, protected mealtimes and red tray systems, how to help someone eat at their level and pace, hand-under-hand support, practical ways to raise fluid intake, and the "food first" approach with fortification before oral nutritional supplements.

4. Swallowing difficulties and texture-modified diets

Signs of dysphagia and silent aspiration, the IDDSI levels 0 to 7 for drinks and foods with the flow, fork pressure and spoon tilt tests, using thickeners exactly as directed, the 2015 national patient safety alert on accidental swallowing of thickening powder, and posture, pace and daily mouth care in line with NICE NG48.

5. Special diets, allergies and individual needs

The 14 major allergens and labelling for food prepacked for direct sale (Natasha's Law), what to do in anaphylaxis, therapeutic diets for diabetes, coeliac disease, kidney disease and heart failure, food and medicine interactions, cultural, faith and ethical food choices, and eating at the end of life, including eating and drinking with acknowledged risks.

6. Monitoring, recording and escalating concerns

Food and fluid charts that are actually useful ("200 ml tea at 10:30, finished" rather than "drinks given"), when and how to escalate using SBAR, exploring the reasons for refusal within capacity law, and food safety basics for care settings and people's own homes.

Each module has key terms, case illustrations, reflection points and an "apply it" task, such as checking whether one person's drinks are in reach, in a cup they can manage and something they actually like. A quick-reference guide sets out what to do if you notice weight loss, low fluid intake, new confusion, coughing when eating, thickener left in a lounge, an allergic reaction or repeated refusal.

The assessment has 15 scenario-based questions, including what IDDSI level 2 means, the three elements of a MUST score and the safest posture for someone with dysphagia. The pass mark is 12 out of 15 (80%); if you fall short, you revisit the linked sections and try again. Passing supports your learning record but does not by itself show competence, which your employer assesses in practice.

Your reflective account asks you to think about one person at risk, one part of practice in your setting that could improve (mealtimes, drinks, recording or thickener storage), and how earlier recognition could have changed things. On completion you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK.

Care Certificate (England). The course can support learning against Standard 8 (Fluids and nutrition). It does not replace your employer's observed assessment, or any practical training in dysphagia, thickener use or tube feeding.

Registered staff. Social care workers registered with the SSSC, Social Care Wales or NISCC can use it as post-registration learning, subject to their regulator's rules. Nurses and nursing associates (NMC) and allied health professionals (HCPC) can record it as individual CPD with a written reflection.

Teams. It works well as a shared baseline for care and kitchen staff, because both need the same language for IDDSI levels and allergens. The course supports awareness; check your employer's requirements before treating it as mandatory training. See for organisations for team credits and the manager dashboard.

• Person-Centred Care, Dignity and Privacy for Care Workers, for dignity at mealtimes, choice and consent;
• Falls Prevention Awareness in Care Settings, because dehydration, weight loss and night-time toileting all raise falls risk;
• Dementia Awareness for Health and Care Staff, for eating and drinking support when someone no longer recognises food or thirst;
• End of Life Care, DNACPR and Advance Decisions, for comfort-focused care when appetite naturally declines.

See all titles on the care sector training page, or use which course do I need for a suggestion.