Data collection. Gather information from the client about their oral and/or overall health, nutrition concerns and/or goals, eating habits, and food and beverage intake.

• Determine your client’s main nutrition concern and/or goals (if applicable) as well as pertinent historical information. For example, is he/she concerned about body weight, a nutrition-related disease (heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, dental caries, periodontal disease, etc.), intake of a specific nutrient (fat, fibre, sugar, calcium, iron) or supplements, or simply about eating a well-balanced diet? Has he/she discussed this concern with a health professional (physician, dietitian, dentist, dental hygienist)? What information does he/she already have about this concern? What changes has he/she already made? Etc.
• Obtain a 1-day food intake history from your client to find out the quality of their diet and eating habits. You can either use a 24-hour recall (what foods and beverages did they consume in the past 24-hours) or a “Usual Food Intake” (what foods and beverages do they “usually” consume in a 24-hour period). Be sure to record the time of day that each food or beverage item was consumed as well as a description of the item and the amount.
• Obtain their height and weight, weigh history (have they lost or gain weight in the past year); weight goals (weight loss, weigh gain or weight maintenance).
• Any other pertinent information that you think may help you in completing the nutritional assessment and/or developing an education plan for your client.

Nutrition Assessment. Evaluate and interpret the information that you have collected, as well as the client’s level of motivation, education and learning style. The assessment should help you identify positive practices and areas for improvement.

• Assess the nutritional adequacy of the diet (compare it the Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating). Did he/she meet the recommended number of servings from each of the four food groups? What about his/her intake of Other Foods?
• Assess body weight. Is he/she at a healthy body weight? What is his/her BMI? How does this compare to the standards? Does he/she need to lose/gain weight? If so, what is a reasonable goal?
• Assess eating habits and risk of dental caries. Does he/she eat regular meals? What are his/her snacking habits? Evaluate total intake of fermentable carbohydrates, form (retention) and frequency. Is your client at risk for dental caries?
• Assess any other pertinent information that your client has provided regarding his her health/medical/dental history, nutrition concerns/goals, eating habits or food and beverage intake.
  

Education Plan. Develop an education plan for your client. Your education plan should include all of the areas that you wish to discuss with your client including

• positive practices (areas of your client’s diet, eating habits, etc. that are good)
• problem areas that need to be discussed with client.
• recommendations for improvement. Your recommendations should include realistic goals and strategies (small step-by-step changes for achieving these goals)
• resources for the client. Provide a list of resources that you could provide to your client for use at the education session and/or for use at home (e.g., fact sheets, pamphlets, Web sites).

Reflection

• Tell me about your experience in preparing an education plan for this client (e.g., level of comfort in obtaining information from client, completing the assessment and making recommendations).
• Discuss strategies for improvement in preparing future education plans with clients (e.g., things that worked well; things that you would do differently).
• What additional supports (if any) would you require if you were going to discuss your education plan with your client?