Malnutrition Awareness Week™

Posted almost 8 years ago

This announcement has 2 attachments:

Certificate of Training in Adult Malnutrition (200 KB)

Malnutrition Screening Tool_FINAL _Professional (480 KB)

ASPEN's Malnutrition Awareness Week™ is September 19 - 25, 2022, The purpose of this week is to raise awareness in healthcare professionals to consider assessing and intervening earlier and for the public to realize that they need to ask about their nutrition status and advocate for optimal nutrition care as much as possible.

"Anorexia and cachexia are common causes of malnutrition in cancer patients. ... Almost all patients who have advanced cancer will have anorexia. Anorexia is the most common cause of malnutrition in cancer patients. Cachexia is a condition marked by a loss of appetite, weight loss, muscle loss, and general weakness." National Cancer Institute.

As nurses and Navigators, you can help detect and prevent malnutrition in your patients. Here are five things you can do:

1). Assess patients' risk factors (see attached Malnutrition Screening Tool). This is especially important when the patient is not hospitalized and is not being monitored routinely by clinical staff.

2). Educate your patients about malnutrition, when to call the physician and what resources are available. Start this as early as you can. There are many resources available, see the list below.

3). Empower patients to monitor their weight and communicate with their healthcare provider(s) when they are losing too much weight or having difficulties eating or drinking.

4). Help your patients find a dietitian.

PearlPoint has a free telephone nutrition education consult for any cancer patient. This is sometimes appropriate as the only intervention needed or as an adjunct to more in-depth face to face services. This particular service is not appropriate for patients who are fed enterally or parenterally.

Intelligent Nutrition Assistant (INA) is a free secure texting resource. Your patient can ask questions 24/7 and get daily communication and recommendations based on current nutrition problems. This is also more appropriate for patients who are not receiving tube feedings or TPN.

If your facility doesn't have outpatient nutrition services, go to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' find an expert.

If your patient is receiving parenteral or enteral feedings, many of the companies supplying formula and TPN have dietitians on staff to help answer questions and manage problems.

5). Increase your knowledge with education. See attached flyer on how to obtain a certificate in Adult Malnutrition. There are resources, listed in the resources section, that offer free Nutrition CE courses.

Tips for gaining weight and improving nutrition with oral nutrition supplements

Oral nutritional supplements , like Ensure, Glucerna and Boost, can be a wonderful addition to your patient's diet. Here are a few tips for use:

All of the oral nutritional supplements have websites with recipes. Most of them have a discount programs or coupons patients can sign up to receive. See the resources listed below.
Think outside the box (or bottle). Tell patients to take their oral liquid nutritional supplements and pour them in a blender; add ice and flavor/nutritious food such as fruit, nut butter, protein powder, extract, etc. The possibilities are endless within the restrictions as directed by their provider(s).
Patients can do more than they think with these oral nutritional supplements. Did you know you can make fudgesicles with chocolate Ensure? Patients can even make soups and quiche using vanilla Ensure or Glucerna in place of milk. Your patients can replace milk and cream in recipes with these oral nutritional supplements to increase the nutrition they get while not having to consume a greater volume.
Go online. Ensure and Boost both have puddings that are more nutritious than regular pudding but are often only sold online.
Tell your patients to ask the food service in the hospital to work with them on options that may not be listed on the menu, most will. Patients are thrilled when they learn they can ask food services to make a milkshake for them using the Ensure instead of milk.
NCI's Eating Hints Before, During and After Cancer Treatment has wonderful tips and recipes. PearlPoint also has many great nutrition resources including tips for each side effect from cancer treatment and as well as a blog with tips and recipes.