Abstract
Background: Nursing home patients at nutritional risk are often not identified, nor given entitled nutritional treatment. One approach proven suitable to facilitate change in clinical practise is participatory action research (PAR). This is a process which involves research participants in reflection, planning, action, observation, assessing and re-planning, targeted to bring about change. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether a PAR project resulted in improved documentation of nutritional care in a nursing home ward. Method and sample: A quantitative evaluation. Documentation of the nutritional information was collected from medical records of residents in a nursing home ward at baseline and five months into the project period. Results: Increased documentation of individual nutritional treatment measures was found from baseline to the follow-up. The number of residents with a nutritional care plan (NCP) also increased significantly. On the other hand, the study identified a significant decrease in the proportion of residents with documented weight and nutritional status. Conclusion: The evaluation found several improvements in the documentation of nutritional care practice in the nursing home ward as a result of the PAR project, indicating that a PAR approach is suitable to bring about change in practice.
Highlights
Nursing home patients at nutritional risk are often not identified, nor given entitled nutritional treatment
The participatory action research (PAR) project was a multidisciplinary collaboration led by representatives from two university colleges and a nursing home ward
The present study found that using a PAR approach improved nutritional care practice in a nursing home in some areas, but not in others
Summary
Nursing home patients at nutritional risk are often not identified, nor given entitled nutritional treatment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether a PAR project resulted in improved documentation of nutritional care in a nursing home ward. Documentation of the nutritional information was collected from medical records of residents in a nursing home ward at baseline and five months into the project period. Results: Increased documentation of individual nutritional treatment measures was found from baseline to the follow-up. Older persons are generally susceptible to undernutrition [1,2] and prevalence among nursing home residents is reported to be high [3,4,5,6]. A large proportion of residents in nursing homes have dementia [8], and persons with dementia are vulnerable to undernutrition [7,9]. Undernourishment is linked to reduced quality of life and increased healthcare costs [6,7]
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