Abstract
Vital signs provide critical information about health and help form the baseline for clinical care. Twenty years ago, the Nutrition Screening Initiative posed nutrition screening as a vital sign for older Americans but this has still not occurred. Nursing is on the frontline for monitoring as well as working to improve nutrition intake in collaboration with dietitians and other healthcare professionals. This article describes the importance of malnutrition screening, key indicators of elder well-being, and how the older American population has changed in the last few decades. The article also chronicles the multidisciplinary Nutrition Screening Initiative, its accomplishments, challenges, and new developments including new screening data collection instruments and the frailty index. Other developments described are the Alliance to Advance Patient Nutrition's intervention framework and documentation of the economic value of nutrition intervention. Opportunities and next steps for nurses to help malnutrition screening become a vital sign are identified. These include the need to make malnutrition screening and intervention part of the core training for nurses. In the hospital setting, the Joint Commission requires that all patients be screened for malnutrition within 24 hours, however malnutrition interventions are often lacking. Thus another opportunity is for malnutrition measurement and documentation to be developed as a summative measure and included as part of the standardized nursing language, with a specific section in the Electronic Health Record. Becoming part of national health goals, such as the Healthy People 2020 objectives, is an additional important step for the evolution of malnutrition screening as a vital sign as is integrating malnutrition screening and intervention into healthcare incentives, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, transitions of care, and community intervention. Finally, committing funding for malnutrition screening, such as through reauthorization of the Older Americans Act, and gaining key learning from international experiences are important.
Highlights
Vital signs are defined as a measurement of the body’s most basic functions—including temperature, respiratory rate, pulse, and blood pressure—that provide critical information about a person’s health and help form the baseline for clinical care
In defining the opportunity for nurses to help malnutrition screening become a vital sign, this article describes the importance of malnutrition screening and the ways in which the older American population has changed in the last few decades; it chronicles the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) through its accomplishments, challenges that remain, progress, and new developments in the intervening 25 years
We suggest using any of the following, validated, screening tools: the Mini-Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF), the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), and the SCREEN-II
Summary
Vital signs are defined as a measurement of the body’s most basic functions—including temperature, respiratory rate, pulse, and blood pressure—that provide critical information about a person’s health and help form the baseline for clinical care. In defining the opportunity for nurses to help malnutrition screening become a vital sign, this article describes the importance of malnutrition screening and the ways in which the older American population has changed in the last few decades; it chronicles the NSI through its accomplishments, challenges that remain, progress, and new developments in the intervening 25 years. The past two decades have brought many social and demographic changes in the elder population as well as in healthcare services Implementing these changes provides opportunities for nurses to help make malnutrition screening a vital sign. The Nutrition Screening Initiative The multidisciplinary NSI is an example of one attempt to make malnutrition screening a vital sign It was launched in 1990 to identify, prevent, or manage nutritional risks that might otherwise cause disability in older Americans [7,14].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
