The Development and Evaluation of Nutritional Therapy-Clinical Professional for Nurses Education Program

Park, Jeongyun; Park, Youngwoo

Abstract

PURPOSE
Malnutrition is associated with an increased risk of complications, and leads to higher morbidity, rising costs of hospitalization, and reduced quality of life for the patients. Nutrition is attracting interest to address malnutrition, with many hospitals forming nutrition support teams (NST) to provide timely, safe, appropriate, and cost-effective nutrition support therapy. NST consists of a multidisciplinary group of health care professionals including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and dietitians. The nurse plays a major role in NST and takes responsibility for planning and implementing interventions to prevent malnutrition. The purpose of this study is to develop a nutritional education program for nurses and to analyze the result of the implementation of the program.
METHODS
Nutritional therapy (NT)-Clinical Professional for Nurses (CPN) education program was developed after analyzing nutrition education program for physicians, pharmacists, or dietitians to provide nutritional nursing care. The program content includes the role and scope of the nutrition support nurse (NSN), nutritional education, and skill. The developed program was administered to 33 nurses. After implementing the program, data were collected from the nurses who attended the program using a questionnaire.
RESULTS
The overall average score of satisfaction was 3.61 out of 4 points during evaluation. After the program, the nurses became more aware of their specific role in facilitating the acceleration of nutrition care. They emphasized that the program would improve their knowledge in nutrition and help them to act as role models.
CONCLUSION
NT-CPN education program proved to be a helpful program for nurses. For the NSNs in NST, this program would play a crucial role.