Patient identification in the diet supply by Nutrition and Dietetic Service’s employees

Abstract

Patient identification has been recognized as a care practice with the potential to cause nutrition-related safety incidents. Inappropriate or absent nutritional care can result in patient insecurity. The objectives of this study were to characterize the sociodemographic profile of the Nutrition and Dietetic Service (NDS) team, to diagnose the process of patient identification in the diets supply and to verify the team’s knowledge on the subject. This was a quantitative, qualitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted in June 2018 through an interview with NDS employees of a public hospital in Belem, PA. The IRAMUTEQ Platform version 0.7 alpha 2 was employed for qualitative analysis using the Word Cloud and Similarity Analysis methods. Sixty-one employees participated in the study, most of them were Operational Assistants, females, from 31 to 40 years old, with high school education and up to 5 years of experience. The results showed that most did not know the concepts examined and did not use the guidelines in their work routine, indicating the need for educational actions aimed at implementing protocols and routines focused on patient safety.