Renal DETERMINE Nutrition Screening Tools for the identification and treatment of malnutrition

Abstract

Nutrition screening is the first step in identifying and treating nutrition-related problems in renal patients. The Renal DETERMINE Nutrition Screening Tools help health care professionals recognize the risk factors for malnutrition in renal patients and suggest interventions to prevent, control, or ameliorate problems when they are present. The Renal DETERMINE Nutrition Awareness Checklist provides a series of questions for the health care professional to ask the renal patient to better identify nutrition problems. It can also be used with renal patients to help educate and increase awareness of nutrition issues. The Renal DETERMINE Nutrition Screening Reference Sheets are then used to help the health care professional identify appropriate interventions for the nutrition problem. The Reference Sheets list the most common nutrition-related concerns for chronic renal insufficiency, hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and post kidney transplant patients. For each risk factor, rationales are presented and interventions to resolve the nutrition related problems are provided.