Patients find milkshakes help the medicine go down

Providence employee’s creamy creations help nutritionally challenged patients eat up

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Mar 4, 2010 (3 Reader comments)

Jaime Valdez / Times Newspapers

Beorn Anderson, a certified nursing assistant, prepares a strawberry shake he's makinf for a cancer patient.

Beorn Anderson’s milkshakes really hit the spot with cancer patients at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

It’s not uncommon for shake requests to be waiting for the certified nursing assistant when he begins his shifts at 2:30 p.m. in the 5West Oncology Unit.

And those requests are welcome news to the team of care providers in oncology, who know how challenging it can be to tempt the taste buds of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

“The chemotherapy causes the alteration of taste buds, nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite for our patients,” said Weedor Gorlorwulu, a registered dietician who encourages patients to eat frequent meals and snacks to keep up their strength. “We try to find something they like.

“When I talk with them, they tell me that they don’t want to eat, but they will consume Beorn’s milkshakes. The calories and protein in the shakes really help. There can be 400 to 500 calories in one shake. When a patient hasn’t been eating, that can make a big difference.”

Instant hit

Anderson has been mixing up his shakes since 2003, shortly after he started working in the oncology unit and started noticing what patients were leaving on their food trays.

“You’d see a full plate of food – pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy – but the cup of chocolate ice cream would be gone,” he recalled.

That got Anderson thinking about how patients would respond to milkshakes.

“It’s important that these folks eat. If this is the only way for them to get food down, so be it,” he said.

Anderson pitched the idea to his supervisor and agreed to complete a six-month study of patient evaluations, using a standard score guide for everyone who was provided one of his shakes.

It turns out the shakes were a hit. Since then Anderson has made more than 1,000 milkshakes and compiled a three-ring binder of more than 20 recipes for shakes and smoothies he crafted with the help of dieticians on staff, which can be altered to cater to patients with allergies or particular nutritional needs.

“His shakes are one thing patients really like,” said Kitty Cannan, evening charge nurse for the unit. “We’ll have patients who come in on a stretcher that will say, ‘Tell Beorn I need a strawberry milkshake.’ ”

Anderson serves up a healthy dose of caring and compassion with each of his icy creations, she added.

Tasty treat

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