This week is Dietitians Week
June 21, 2022
This week is Dietitians Week which aims to raise awareness of dietitians and the invaluable work they do at SWB.
- Dietitians and the dietetic workforce support patients at every life stage from babies to older people and every stage in between
- All patients at our hospitals should have nutrition screening undertaken on admission to hospital and on admission to a new ward. This should then be repeated weekly
- For adult screening we use MUST – The ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ which uses scores for BMI, weight loss and acute disease effect. This is found within ‘Assessments / Fluid Balance’ on Unity under nutritional assessment. A score of 2 or more indicates high risk of malnutrition. A first line care plan should be implemented and the patient needs referred to dietitian via “referral to inpatient dietitian” under Requests/Rare plans on Unity.
- For paediatric screening we use STAMP – The ‘Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Paediatrics which is scored on Diagnosis, Nutritional Intake and Weight and Height. This is found within ‘Assessments /Fluid Balance’ on Unity under STAMP screening form. A score of 4 or more indicates high risk of malnutrition and needs referring to dietitian via “referral to inpatient dietitian” under Requests/Rare plans on Unity.
- There is now a quick reference guide to MUST and STAMP added onto Unity within each of the screening forms to support you completely the screening (see image below).