Abstract
Background:
Good nutrition and hydration are essential to patient’s health and wellbeing. Reduced nutrition leads to increased hospital admissions, re-admissions, longer length of recovery, poor wound healing and sarcopenia. Introduction: In hospital inpatients, especially when frail or vulnerable, the ward’s duty is to ensure that appropriate pathways exist to support their nutritional status and identify those who need additional support, additionally making sure patients have access to food and drink. Our ward wasn’t compliant with hospital standards. Additionally, patients experienced social isolation at mealtimes which negatively impacted on patient mood and calories consumed.
Methods:
Over 4 weeks, utilizing existing ward staff, we implemented a lunch club. This involved facilitating a communal lunch on the ward. Our main outcome measures were calorie and protein consumption. 40 data sets were obtained from what was recorded on the patient’s food chart and cross referencing it with the dietary information provided by the health board catering department. We also gathered data on WAASP score compliance comparing wards who had regular lunch clubs to those who did not.
Results
Attending lunch club resulted in a 68% increase in calorie consumption. In addition to this protein intake was increased by 73%. Wards where there was a DSW 97% of patients were screened for malnutrition, compared to only 61% on the wards without a DSW. Furthermore, on the wards without a DSW only 30% of patients were weighed once a week compared to 100% of those on a ward with a DSW. Not only did we see an objective increase in the calories consumed, patient enjoyment of mealtimes was increased as well as their time socializing during their in-patient stay
Conclusion
Lunch club increased calorie consumption, but it’s not sustainable without appropriate staffing. Comparing wards with and without DSW, there are clear discrepancies managing malnutrition.
Comments
Communal mealtimes
Great piece of work. We have a lunch club in the stroke rehabilitation centre and see huge benefit with it. Great to see it being implemented elsewhere.
I'm not sure I know what DSW stands for and I would suggest avoiding abbreviations, unless stated what they mean, in an abstract.
How did the patients respond? Not everyone likes to socialise in situations such as this and this acceptability data would be very interesting.