welcome to the topic of nutrition
we're going to discuss about all of the
positive aspects that nutrition can
bring to your client
and also different types of diets and
consistencies
that you need to consider in regards to
treatment of your patient
now let's start off by talking about
what new good
nutrition does to affect the body well
first off it helps increase blood flow
to prevent disease helps increases blood
flow to our brain
increases that focus and concentration
and of course
provides great nutrients to the cells to
provide great energy and help stabilize
our blood sugar
now don't forget about the advantages
for good hair and nails
it can help strengthen those and prevent
hair loss as well
and a really important point is good
nutrition
can help hydrate and strengthen the
condition and the integrity of the skin
now many of you know who are in nursing
school or who are nurses
that good nutrition helps prevent those
wounds or even helps heal them in that
process
it also can help prevent acne and
infections
now good nutrition really plays a key
role in immunity to help boost that
to help prevent disease prevention not
to mention that it'll help again
keyword good healthy nutrition reduces
fat
and cholesterol to decrease heart
disease and
reduce the workload of the heart now
digestion is another thing we've got to
think about in regards to good nutrition
it can help promote good digestive
health healthy weight
and disease prevention now lastly
good nutrition is key for good bones
joints and muscles
to strengthen those build healthy muscle
mass
and reduce inflammation now let's talk
about nutritional screening this is
commonly done in many different
facilities for
clients to assess what their dietary
needs are
now this is the process of identifying
patients who are already
or at risk for malnourishment a good
nutritional screening can identify
many different problems such as being
overweight
underweight if there's a significant
weight loss or gain
poor food choices social habits that can
affect our nutrition
now the availability of food is another
key piece
and any potential problems with
digestion that you may have
now let's take a look at different types
of nutrition
as a nurse there's different routes that
sometimes we need to use to help
maintain our patients caloric or dietary
needs
now the first is the oral type of
nutrition which of course
is the most preferred and this is by
just taking food or supplements by mouth
down the esophagus into the digestive
system to get that good peristalsis
which is the most ideal for consumption
now sometimes for oral consumption
we may need some supplementation to help
maybe increase
protein or calories for our clients and
supplements can be used
for specialized dietary needs
now there are several instances where
maybe the patient can't use the most
preferred route
such as oral nutrition here's a great
example of this
maybe a patient for example can't
swallow effectively
going into the patient's lungs which
they can aspirate
of course this is a patient safety issue
and dangerous
therefore sometimes we have to bypass
the oral route
and go for example using two feedings
now we can support their nutrition using
liquid feedings
that supply directly to the gastric
region
through maybe the nasal gastric tube an
oral gastric tube
or a peg tube which goes directly into
the stomach
now we can also use iv fluids to help
support hydration
and electrolytes but again this is more
of a short-term therapy
and don't forget we also have something
called tpn
otherwise known as total parenteral
nutrition
now this is a little bit longer term
than iv fluids
it's nutritional therapy that has lipids
also for energy
different hydration electrolytes
now let's take a look at some
specialized diets we'll just talk about
these briefly
note that there's special diets for
specific disease processes
for example there's a renal diet if a
patient has kidney disease
a diabetic diet for diabetics of course
there's low sodium diets that we use
many times for cardiac patients
and of course if your patient's
malnourished sometimes we may need a
high calorie or
a high protein diet also if a patient
has delayed wound healing
we may also use a high calorie or high
protein diet
now due to swallowing difficulties or
maybe the patients preparing for surgery
there are certain diets for specific
consistencies
such as a liquid diet which also if the
patient has any inflammatory bowel
issues for example we may use that type
of diet
their surgical soft diets mix
consistencies
sometimes we may need to ground up the
patients for food for swallowing
we may need to even chop up the food and
of course there's a regular consistency
diet
now let's talk about some specific diet
types
npo is one that you're going to commonly
hear as a nurse
otherwise known as nothing by mouth this
absolutely means we don't want anything
to eat or drink
down the patient's oral route now just
be conscious as a nurse because
sometimes the physician's order may say
npo
or nothing by mouth except for meds so
if you're going to give medications and
you see the order for npo
make sure you look at the order and
clarify
next don't forget there's a clear liquid
diet this is really helpful
after the patient's been in po then
maybe they're arousing from anesthesia
we may use that type of diet so the
patient doesn't get nauseated
this can include water tea clear soda
even gelatin think about it's kind of
clear or broth
now if the patient tolerates that
especially post surgery
or if they've had any gastric issues we
can then advance them to a full liquid
diet
now this is going to have a little bit
more substance to it a little bit more
calories but still
very easily digestible so this is going
to include things like fruit or veggie
juices
some broth we can even use strain pureed
vegetable soups
cream based soups milk coffee
milkshakes pudding all some of those
good stuff
don't forget as well that if they can
tolerate the full liquid diet we can
also use like a soft diet
again still easily digestible but got a
little bit more bulk to it
so this can include something like eggs
or mashed potatoes
even baked fish saw fruits well-cooked
veggies notice not raw here
something that's easily digestible for
the patient
now occasionally you may see the order
for a pureed diet
this is truly what it sounds like a
fully blenderized
food now it's a thicker liquid it's
important here that you don't have any
chunks
or solid materials because this could be
an aspiration risk for your patient
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