The selected topic is “Beyond malnutrition screening: Appropriate methods to guide nutrition care for aged care residents.” According to the topic, malnutrition remains a weighty and under-recognized issue among older adults. The nutritional risk problem is mostly evident among older adults in long-term healthcare institutions. Malnourishment among older adults is a problem among older adults since they have increased rates of admissions to hospitals, face lengthened hospital stays, higher incidences of falls, ulcers, and hip fracture, and deteriorating life quality. Malnutrition depicts morbidity strongly irrespective of the controls implemented for illnesses while older adults subject to malnourishment have higher mortality rates (Isenring, Banks, Ferguson, & Bauer, 2012). Identifying malnutrition early and instituting proper nutrition support would assist in stopping or reversing negative effects of poor nutrition.
Article Search
The identified article “Beyond Malnutrition Screening: Appropriate Methods to Guide Nutrition Care for Aged Care Residents” by Elisabeth A. Isenring, Merrilyn Banks, Maree Ferguson, and Judith D. Bauer is current. Any article published within the last 10 years is considered current. Thus, since the article was published in 2012, the information it presents is current. The source is also credible particularly due to the authority of the authors. These have PhD’s in health related fields while at the same time experts in fields of health and nutrition, which make the source credible for use in understanding the topic. The article utilized database search for terms to be used for the topic, which comprised of dietetics, nutrition screening, malnutrition, aged care, nutrition (Isenring, Banks, Ferguson, & Bauer, 2012). The articles located were 40, all of which were from inside ATI module.
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Article Findings
The article addresses the topic by assessing the concomitant soundness of various tools for screening malnutrition as well as anthropometric parameters against confirmed nutritional evaluation tools in long-term healthcare facilities. The article conducts a cross-sectional observational study by screening participants comprising of older adults aged over 55 years from two-long-term healthcare institutions. The article finds that the prevalence of malnutrition was below 30 percent, which is below reports by other studies of 50 percent. The lower prevalence of malnutrition in the study is because of proactive nutrition measures facilities use. Nevertheless, concerns arose due to a third of the residents being malnourished. The article was chosen to reveal the increased prevalence of malnutrition among older adults to devise effective ways of dealing with the situation.
Evidence for Practice
From the article, the prevalence of malnutrition among older adults is an issue of concern, especially among older adults. Various methods exist for screening malnutrition, which can guide nutrition care among older adults (Isenring, Banks, Ferguson, & Bauer, 2012). The study can improve practice by facilitating in identifying various issues contributing to growing incidences of malnutrition among older adults and propose the ideal care approaches to deal with the condition. The evidence can decrease gap to practice by availing the needed information to care practitioners on how to identify prevalence of malnutrition and the intervention measures they can deploy (Power, et al., 2018). However, the major weakness located in the evidence is the use of just two healthcare facilities for screening older adults, which is insufficient to identify how malnutrition affects the broader population.
Sharing Evidence
The information from the study would be shared with physicians, nurses, policymakers, and the government. These would play a crucial role in ensuring that the condition receives significant attention while at the same time offering the needed care to the vulnerable population (older adults). The information would be shared through government publications, bulletins in healthcare facilities, and research papers. The resources for sharing the information would comprise of healthcare institutions that cater for the elderly (Power, et al., 2018). Sharing the information with the nursing profession would help to adopt best practices for catering for older populations who suffer from malnutrition.
Conclusion
In conclusion, malnutrition remains a substantial and under-recognized issue among older adults. The nutritional risk problem is mostly evident among older adults in long-term healthcare institutions. In this sense, identifying those at risk for malnutrition through various screening tools would facilitate in understanding the prevalence of malnutrition among older adults and the ideal measures addressing the condition. Overall, the use of malnutrition screening tools would be crucial to guiding nutrition care for aged care populations.
References
Isenring, E. A., Banks, M., Ferguson, M., & Bauer, J. D. (2012). Beyond malnutrition screening: Appropriate methods to guide nutrition care for aged care residents. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112 (3), 376-381.
Power, L., Mullally, D., Gibney, E. R., Clarke, M., Visser, M., Volkert, D., . . . Corish, C. A. (2018). A review of the validity of malnutrition screening tools used in older adults in community and healthcare settings – A MaNuEL study. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 24 , 1-13.
