Nutrition and Hydration Screening in Primary Practice

Naomi trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Her specific interest in hydration stems from caring for her mother at home, and memories of student nurse days being told to “push fluids.” Naomi is recognised as the UK's first Hydration Care Nurse Specialist and is the creator of the award-winning ROC Hydration Care Assessment Tool, which is recognised to fulfil an unmet need in elderly care assessment. ROC “Reliance on a Carer” provides a much-needed simple method to identify who relies on a carer to drink and eat. Naomi has been Chair of the National Hydration Network (NHN) since 2016, and organised a national conference in 2018 and 2019 hosted by Age UK and Malnutrition Task Force. In 2018 she founded her own hydration care company, now trading as ROC Care Systems, with a global mission to prevent ‘avoidable’ dehydration in elderly and vulnerable care. In 2020, she secured investment to develop a digital version of ROC and an online hydration care training programme. Naomi firmly believes her ROC tool will transform how care provider organisations and regulators assess and review fundamental hydration and nutrition care, to ensure sustainable high-quality care for future generations.

In 2014 the Health Service Journal included Naomi in their HSJ top list of ‘healthcare’s most inspirational female leaders’. In 2016 she won the prestigious British Journal of Nursing award for innovation. She has also been granted a UK patent for a drinking aid that enables the most frail or sick to effortlessly sip fluids. Naomi has written several nursing articles and is frequently asked to give presentations, most recently by the Royal College of Nursing.