Ošetřovatelské perspektivy 2019, 2(2):21-32 | DOI: 10.25142/osp.2019.012

PARTICIPATION OF NURSES IN EVALUATION OF NUTRITIONAL STATE IN CRITICAL STATE PATIENTS

Eva Balogová¹, Ľubica Trnková^2,3

¹ Fakulta zdravotníctva so sídlom v Banskej Bystrici, Slovenská zdravotnícka univerzita v Bratislave

² Medicínske centrum Medilife

³ Detašované pracovisko bl. Sáry Salkaháziovej Rožňava, Vysoká škola zdravotníctva a sociálnej práce sv. Alžbety v Bratislave

Introduction: Despite the important role that the nutritional support plays in medical preventative care for patients hospitalized in the intensive care units, the nutritional screening and appropriate nutrition of critical state patients are of lower preference than other types of hospital care. These findings are stated in some literary sources. Several inquiries carried out abroad revealed differences in evaluating the nutritional state which may cause unsatisfactory nutritional and energy intake of such patients.

Aim: The aim of the prospective study was to determine the differences in nursing interventions related to the measuring of the nutritional status.

Methodology: Empirical data were obtained through the research protocols which analyzed the individual interventions that had been applied to sample of 182 patients in teaching hospitals and 191 patients in non teaching hospitals, all hospitalized in critical care departments and surgical intensive care units. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test of independence for the contingent table on a significance level of 0.001.

Results: Comparing the practices between teaching and non teaching hospitals proved the statistic importance in differences of nurse’s participation in evaluating patient’s nutritional condition: in timing of changes of body weight (27.6 % vs 11.0 %, AR = 4.1 or -4.1), revealing indigestion (46.1 % vs 25.7 %, AR = 4.1 or -4.1) and revealing causes of limited food intake (43.1 % vs 15.2 %, AR = 5.9 or -5.9). Ratio of nurses from teaching hospitals in using standardized measurement scale differed significantly.

Conclusion: The authors of the research suggest several ways how to improve the nutritional care: involvement of nurses in measuring the nutritional status, use of adapted measurement scale and extra skilled nurses for examining signs of malnutrition.

Keywords: malnutrition, nutritional screening, intensive care, critical state patient

Received: December 2, 2019; Revised: December 13, 2019; Accepted: December 19, 2019; Published: April 7, 2020  Show citation