DVD Promotes Heart Health

FM Staff

Providing proper nutrition to patients is easy when they are in the hospital, but what happens once they leave the hospital?

Teaching patients proper nutrition post-discharge is a top priority for the clinical nutrition staff at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ.

"We're always looking for creative ways to teach nutrition to patients with special diets," says Susan George, assistant director, clinical nutrition. "We have a very high turnover of cardiac patients and it's difficult to catch them in a timely manner. We thought it might be even more effective if we gave them something to take home and watch."

The DVD, which started as a Power Point presentation, teaches patients proper nutrition at home. The DVD program, dubbed "Healthy Heart, Healthy You" has been up and running for nearly a month.

"The people who have received the DVD love it," says George. "It's both effective and efficient."