Nutrition and Hydration Week: March 16 th -20 th 2015: Cardiff and Vale UHB A Global Challenge The mission of Nutrition and Hydration Week is to create a global movement that will reinforce and focus energy, activity and engagement on nutrition and hydration as an important part of quality care, experience and safety improvement in health and social care settings. The aims of this week were to widely promote key characteristics for good nutritional care, protected mealtimes, nutrition advocates, standards for good nutrition in all settings, sharing good nutrition and hydration practices and providing education to enhance knowledge (N&H2015). Throughout Cardiff and Vale UHB a number of activities were undertaken to promote nutrition and hydration as a fundamental of care. We took this opportunity to showcase our 5 key characteristics for Good Nutritional Care. Health Promotion A number of stands were displayed around the Health Board sites to promote various important topics within the hospital and home environment. The topics included healthy eating, eating on a budget, hydration and food fortification. To underpin these messages we worked closely with the local food co-ops who provided and displayed a selection of fresh, vibrant fruit and vegetables, a food waste initiative representative to promote reduce costs of healthy eating, and the speech and language department to promote good nutrition and hydration for those patients on a texture modified diet. To help promote the importance of healthy eating, free fruit was available on the stands. It is estimated that 520 people took a banana, apple or orange. As awareness is a major factor affecting healthy eating, prize hampers were purchased from a local fresh fruit and vegetable company and the audience were asked to complete a quiz relating to healthy eating to win the hampers. This was to help generate discussion around the daily topics and the highest scorer of 53 entries won the hampers at the end of the week. Practical hydration tips were promoted to ensure hydration awareness and the symptoms of dehydration. Free bottles of water were given out to the public and at ward level additional beverage rounds were provided with the use of nourishing drinks to highlight the importance of hydration at ward level. Literature was provided for these take home nutrition messages. To further promote Nutrition and Hydration week our activities and key messages were posted on the UHB intranet site and from the UHB Twitter account.