Nutritional Screening for Malnourished Patients - Essay Example

The earlier the screening is done to a patient, the better since in case nutritional support is required, the sooner the patient is introduced to the Program. Any member of the health care team can run the tests since it does not require the knowledge and expertise of a dietician. A checklist where dietician enters pertinent information about the patient is used. Since the rest of the team requires drawing reference to the information, the form is placed on the patient’s medical record. The process of checking the nutritional status of a patient is a four-step model.

Every in-patient checking to the hospital must receive nutritional screening to determine whether they face nutritional impairment or not Coulston & Boushey (2013). Thorough screening is run on patients who are at risk of nutritional impairment and a nutritional support program is developed and initiated by the dietician. Monitoring to the patient is done to ensure a positive response to the program.Although hospitals have been running these tests on patients, they have not put enough emphasis on the Programme.

Outpatients rarely receive the tests, yet they could also be suffering from the problem. The program is very expensive and only sustainable for patients who can afford it. Though hospitals are trying to eliminate cases of malnourishment, a lot more need to be done.