218 DEVELOPING CONSENSUS-BASED INTEGRATED NUTRITION CARE PATHWAYS TO PREVENT, IDENTIFY AND MANAGE MALNUTRITION IN IRELAND
218 DEVELOPING CONSENSUS-BASED INTEGRATED NUTRITION CARE PATHWAYS TO PREVENT, IDENTIFY AND MANAGE MALNUTRITION IN IRELAND
A. Griffin,A. Hedderman,3 Authors,H. Keller
TLDR
Healthcare professionals’ agreement with the relevance and importance of the proposed integrated nutrition care pathways offer guidance to prevent, identify, and manage malnutrition among older adults transitioning between care settings or living at home.
Abstract
The expected policy and standards of nutritional care in acute settings in Ireland has recently been developed (Department of Health, 2020). Based on these and international guidelines, integrated care pathways have been proposed by a panel of experts for (i) the transition of nutrition care of adult patients (>18 years) from hospital to community and, (ii) screening and identifying nutrition risk among community dwelling older adults (>65 years). The purpose of this study was to develop a consensus amongst diverse stakeholders for the proposed integrated nutrition care pathways.
A cross-sectional online survey collected data to identify pathway practices for retention. The survey was adapted to the Irish context based on previous research. Relevant stakeholders including healthcare professionals working in hospital, community and primary care, general practitioners, nurses, registered dietitians, healthcare workers from voluntary community services, and patients/patient advocates were recruited. Participants responded on the relevance and importance of discreet care practices in the proposed Nutrition Care Pathway and a consensus was set at ≥ 80%.
Ninety-seven healthcare professionals and eight patient/patient advocates completed the survey. There was no response from healthcare workers from voluntary community services. Most of the discreet care practices gained consensus ratings ≥80% from healthcare professionals. Among the patient/patient advocates, only 3 pathway elements gained consensus ≥80%.
Healthcare professionals’ agreement with the relevance and importance of the proposed integrated nutrition care pathways offer guidance to prevent, identify, and manage malnutrition among older adults transitioning between care settings or living at home. The opinion of patients/patient advocates and healthcare workers of voluntary community services providers requires further engagement using alternative methodologies.