Advancing Nutrition, Transforming Lives

National nutrition policy should be in place to address malnutrition. The policy should cover all age groups across all healthcare settings and provide a framework for a consistent approach to standard and quality improvements for nutritional care.

Routine screening for vulnerable groups should be built into national nutrition policies. Groups include patients admitted to hospitals and care homes and those under the care of community/general practitioners. Quality standards and quality control measures should be included in the policy to ensure that the screening has undertaken a selection of appropriate screening tools which take account of factors including the patient group, the setting, practical implementation and validity of the tools. Guidance from professionals, societies and national authorities will be taken into account when choosing the tools.

Availability of appropriate equipment to enable the screening to take place.

Clearly defined scope of practice of healthcare workers who will undertake the screening, ensuring they have the right knowledge and skills.

Training of the health workers to have the knowledge and skills to both undertake the screening, as well as knowing when and how to act upon the screening results.

It is critical that the appropriate documentation of the results of screening, and the action planned and taken is produced for the continuity of care and for audit and quality control activities.

Availability of appropriate equipment to enable the screening to take place.

There will be the translation of the evidence of the benefit of enteral and parenteral nutrition in a range of patient groups through education and training of healthcare practitioners to ensure that the patients who need nutritional interaction, in particular Enteral Tube Feeding (ETF), receive it in an evenly and appropriate manner.