Heartbeat: Spotlight on nutrition and hydration week

November 4, 2020

As frontline colleagues across the Trust will attest to, providing excellent clinical care is what we strive to offer to each person that we look after. Providing great patient care can be varied, and there isn’t one size that fits all.

Guided by our care promises, we have outlined the standards we expect for how we treat patients, staff and visitors. Recognising that there was an opportunity to help improve patient rehabilitation, Lyne Wright, Advanced Speech and Language Therapist spearheaded the launch of a nutrition and hydration week that was a multi-disciplinary team event.

Lyne told us: “The idea for the awareness week came about following observations that our patients on Newton 4 were not progressing with their rehabilitation in part due to reduced oral intake – an average meal size consumed was less than half for most patients.

“Newton 4 is a stroke rehabilitation unit with 50 per cent of patients currently taking either modified diet or fluids or both following a diagnosis of dysphagia, swallowing difficulty associated with foods, liquids and saliva. Dysphagia can result in avoidable complications, such as malnutrition, dehydration, weight loss, reduced stamina, poor physical and psychological recovery, pressure ulcers, reduced wound healing, infections and increased mortality.

“Staff reported that they were struggling to support oral intake, with patients often declining main meals and refusing to eat for varied reasons, i.e. no appetite, feeling nauseous, dislike of the food available. We decided to observe staff feeding patients and identified goals that may support an increase in diet and fluids. Some of our main observations included poor positioning for eating and drinking, lack of appetite and training needed around pressure bolus, sensory bolus and hand over hand feeding.”

Nutrition and Hydration Week took place week commencing 21 September. Lyne told us: “The week aimed to raise awareness of some of the difficulties our patients face. Also, we wanted to focus on how we, as therapists could support the nursing team and health care assistants to encourage patients to meet their nutritional and hydration needs. Another key aim was to enable feeding within a limited timescale using the increased knowledge around positioning and feeding techniques.

Matron, Michael Brennan commented: “This was an exceptionally well organised week. It saw colleagues from all disciplines come together to enhance the patient experience. It highlights Lyne’s dedication to stroke services, her passion for exceptional patient care and her amazing team. I must say thank you to everyone involved for showing their support.”