Nutritional Support A Team Approach

Interest in clinical nutrition is increasing among health professionals. At the same time there has been a rise in the use of enteral and parental feedings as methods of providing nutritional support. Technical advances and innovations have enabled many more patients to receive nutritional support, yet despite these improvements the incidence of malnutrition in hospital patients remains high. Furthermore, while the potential efficacy of nutritional support has increased, practical teaching in its use is sparse; clinicians, in particular, have little nutritional training. This book presents nutritional support as an essential facet of team health care; essential in that selected patients require nutritional support to main life, enhance recovery and promote health. The book is divided into three sections. The first lays the foundations of nutritional support in a discussion of teamwork, nutrition and malnutrition, nutritional assessment, and a selection of patients for enteral, parenteral or home feeding and nutritional requirements. The second and third sections deal with delivering enteral or parental nutrition respectively. This includes discussion of choice feeding routes, equipment, feed solutions, feed regimens, the practice of feeding and treatment and prevention of complications.