Abstract
Background: The lack of sufficient knowledge of health care professionals is one main barrier to implementing adequate nutritional interventions. Until now, it is not known to which extent European nurses are exposed to the topic of malnutrition in older adults during their education. Objective: To determine whether formal nursing degree programs in Europe address the topic of nutrition and, specifically, malnutrition in older adults. Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online-survey. Participants: The online-survey link was e-mailed to 926 nursing education institutions in 31 European countries. Methods: This study was conducted as part of the Healthy Diet for Healthy Life Joint Programming Initiative, Malnutrition in the Elderly Knowledge Hub (MaNuEL) project. Descriptive analyses were performed using SPSS. Associations were calculated using the chi-square tests and Fisher's exact test. Results: The response rate of our survey was 14.2% (131 institutions). Of these, 113 (86.3%) addressed the topic of nutrition in their educational programs, and 73.7% addressed the topic of malnutrition in older adults. Malnutrition screening (70.8%), causes (67.2%) and consequences (68.7%) of malnutrition were frequently-addressed topics of content. Topics that were rarely addressed included nutritional support in intensive care units (ICU) (23.7%), cooperation in multidisciplinary nutrition teams (28.2%), dietary counselling (32.1%) and the responsibilities of various professions in nutritional support (35.1%). The topic of malnutrition in older adults is taught by nurses in 52.7%, by dietitians in 23.7%, by nutritional scientists in 18.3%, and physicians in 19.8% of the institutions. Conclusions: The topics of malnutrition and malnutrition screening are currently not included in the content of nutrition courses taught at nearly 30% of the European educational institutions for nurses. Nursing educators urgently need to improve curriculum content with respect to the topic of malnutrition in older adults to enable nurses to provide high-quality nutritional care of older persons.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 13-18 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Nurse Education Today |
| Volume | 68 |
| Early online date | 26 May 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2018 |
Funding
We would like to express our thanks to Isabell Kravanja, BScN, who supported this study as a student assistant. The preparation of this paper was supported by the MAlNUtrition in the ELderly (MaNuEL) knowledge hub. This work is supported by the Joint Programming Initiative ‘Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life’. The funding agencies supporting this work are: Austria: Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy ( BMWFW-10.420/0004-WF/V/3c/2016 ); France: Ecole Supérieure d'Agricultires (ESA); Germany: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) ( 2815ERA10E and 2815ERA08E ) represented by Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE); Ireland: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) ( 15/HDHL/2 MANUEL ); and the Health Research Board (HRB); Spain: Instituto de Salud Carlos III , and the SENATOR trial ( FP-HEALTH-2012-305930 ); The Netherlands: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) ( 50-52905-98-499 ).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Health Research Board | |
| European Space Agency | |
| Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Ireland | 15/HDHL/2 MANUEL |
| ZonMw | 50-52905-98-499 |
| Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft | BMWFW-10.420/0004-WF/V/3c/2016 |
| Instituto de Salud Carlos III | FP-HEALTH-2012-305930 |
| Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft | 2815ERA08E, 2815ERA10E |
| Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung |
Keywords
- Malnutrition
- Nursing education
- Nursing education research
- Nutrition
- Older adults
