Contribution of the Nutrition Support Team To the Clinical Process in Inpatient Wards

Abstract

Introduction: Malnourished patients have increased morbidity and mortality, longer hospital stays, and high cost patient care. Nutrition Support Teams (NST) are multidisciplinary teams trained in nutrition, mainly consisting of doctors, dieticians, nurses and pharmacists. It is known that NSTs have an important role in the fight against hospital malnutrition. In this study, we aimed to investigate the duration until the involvement of NST in the management of patients who had been receiving nutritional support and its effect on mortality. Material and methods: Eighty hospitalized patients from surgery and internal medicine clinics who were evaluated by NST were included. Nutrition support was planned and the patients were followed-up during the hospital stay. The demographics, Nutrition Risk Sreening (NRS) 2002 scores, presence of malignancy, presence of comorbidities, duration until NST consultation and length of hospital stay were analysed as independent variables and presence of mortality was evaluated as dependent variable. Results: Mortality was detected in 13 (16.25%) of the 80 patients. NRS 2002 score ? 3, delayed consultation from NST and long hospital stay were found to be significantly correlated with mortality. Conclusion: Patients with malnutrition or with the risk of malnutrition should be identified by making nutritional assessments at the time of hospitalization, and a nutrition plan should be established for these patients. Nutrition Support Teams can aid the clinicians in the fight against hospital malnutrition, may shorten the hospital stay of the patient and may contribute positively to survival.