Nutrition and Older People, Essay Example

In the case “Failure to Administer Proper Nourishment” (Caruso v. Pine Manor Nursing Ctr. 538 N.E.2d 722 (Ill. App. Ct. 1989), the owners of the Pine Manor Nursing Center were found guilty of neglect and failing to adhere to the Nursing Home Care Reform Act of the state of Illinois. This act defines neglect as the failure of a nursing home to provide adequate medical or personal care and which results in physical or mental harm to a resident or in the deterioration of his/her condition. This would include providing the resident with personal care and maintenance, food, water, and assistance with meals if needed in order to maintain a healthy life in the nursing home. Overall, the trial court decided that the record was sufficient in proving that Mr. Caruso suffered from dehydration as a direct result of nursing home negligence.

In a healthcare facility, whether a nursing home, hospice, or a conventional hospital, assessing the nutritional needs of residents and patients is of prime importance, due in part to the fact that proper nutrition saves lives, especially when the resident or patient is elderly. Thus, all professional healthcare providers that work particularly at nursing homes must be able to perform timely nutritional assessments which are fundamental to proper nursing care and treatment. In order to make a proper nutritional assessment for a patient, it is advised that the nurse or other caregiver listens closely to what an elderly resident or patient is saying about his/her nutritional needs, and that all of the necessary equipment like scales and height meters should be present and in excellent working condition (Heath, 2009, p. 6).

In addition, a nurse should be familiar with the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), a “five step screening tool developed in 2003 to help identify adults who are malnourished” or at a high risk of becoming malnourished. This tool also includes specific guidelines that a nurse or other caregiver can follow to develop a care plan that will help to guarantee that a resident or patient does not become malnourished. Certainly, this screening tool would have been very welcomed by the nurses and administrators at Pine Manor Nursing Center in 1989 (Heath, 2009, p. 6) in relation to possibly avoiding the lawsuit.

Some of the priorities mandated by this screening tool includes screening residents and patients during their initial appointments, both as inpatients and outpatients, on a weekly basis and when there appears to be clinical concern for especially outpatients; the creation of a specialized care plan that involves proper diet requirements and plenty of fluids when dehydration is a major concern; and nutritional advice and support teams with the proper training and knowledge to help “detect, prevent, and treat malnutrition in all care settings” and in the immediate elderly community where the majority of malnutrition cases can be found (Heath, 2009, p. 7).

Since the possibility does exist that sometime in the near future I will be employed in a nursing home, hospice, or hospital as a professional nurse, I would attempt to convince the administrators and/or owners to indoctrinate their caregivers on how to perform timely and accurate nutritional assessments. One excellent incentive would be that a lawsuit might be avoided as in Caruso v. Pine Manor Nursing Center. On the other hand, if I happened to become an administrator, I would mandate that the institution must integrate nutrition assessment into its policies, programs, and health service delivery infrastructure. As noted by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance III (FANTA) Project Managers, this approach helps to “strengthen the capacity of  facility and community-based healthcare providers to deliver nutrition-specific services” and to recognize the importance of nutrition-sensitive interventions (Defining Nutrition Assessment, Counseling, and Support (NACS), 2012) that could potentially save lives and prevent a disastrous lawsuit.

References

Defining nutrition assessment, counseling, and support (NACS). (2012). Retrieved from http://www.fhi360.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/FANTA-NACS-TechNote-Jul2012.pdf

Heath, H. (2009). Nutrition and older people. Nursing Standard. Retrieved from http://journals.rcni.com/userimages/ContentEditor/1373368440289/Nutrition-and-older- people.pdf