Outpatient Nutrition Care and Home Nutrition Support

Book excerpt: Nutrition, defined by Merriam-Webster, is the process of eating the right kind of food so you can grow properly and be healthy. However, making the right food and nutrition choices and finding the best and most accurate nutrition information can be a challenge, especially when a disease or injury is present. There are a wide range of ways that nutrition can be healing, from a simple broth that provides fluids and electrolytes to therapeutic nutrition for diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, or osteoporosis. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN) have expertise in disease management and translation of nutrition requirements to foods to consume. However, nutrition care often does not receive the attention in the out-patient setting that is needed to achieve nutrition goals. The purpose of this book is to provide pertinent and concise nutrition care information for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and other professionals working with individuals outside of the hospital including nurses, pharmacists, and physicians. This book covers screening, assessing, and treating malnutrition; out-patient nutrition care in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease, osteoporosis; and home enteral and parenteral nutrition. In each chapter the reader will learn more about the disease process as well as the management of the disease or therapy. As the number of patients receiving home care nutrition support increases, proper assessment and management of this therapy is crucial, and clinicians need to practice at an advanced level. This book presents advanced and readily applicable information on proper nutrition care of individuals in the outpatient setting and those receiving home nutrition support.