Implementing Nutrition Screening: Lessons Learning in Facilitating Practice Change

This Malnutrition Awareness Week event is a combined effort between ASPEN and the Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS). Nutrition professionals recognize that team-based practice is needed to identify and address multifactorial malnutrition yet engaging the multidisciplinary team in nutrition care activities is limited. CNS via the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force has successfully implemented a broad-based nutrition screening, diagnosis, and treatment program and have engaged the multidisciplinary team in nutrition care. Similarly, the Systematized, Interdisciplinary Malnutrition Program for Implementation and Evaluation (SIMPLE) in Australia has modified nutrition care process roles by increasing delegation, skill sharing, and systems-based interventions for inpatients screened 'at risk' of malnutrition. This has demonstrated more timely and efficient inpatient nutrition interventions, improved patient reported outcomes and experience measures, has supported dietitians to meet increased service demand associated with improved screening practices. These examples of how improvements in care process can be achieved will be of interest to webinar attendees.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe lessons learned implementing and evaluating a nutrition screening program.
• Outline how to facilitate practice change in the context of nutrition care and activities.
• Apply nutrition screening and practice changes.