Geriatric Special Topics: Nutrition (2HR)

Course overview

Target Audience: The target audience for this education program is nurses who want to enhance their ability to facilitate adequate nutrition in the older adult, assess nutritional status, and help to correct imbalances of nutrition. Course Overview: Nutritional status is the balance of nutrient intake, physiological demands, and metabolic rate. However, older adults are at risk of poor nutrition. Furthermore, malnutrition, a recognized geriatric syndrome, is of concern because it can often be unrecognizable and impacts morbidity, mortality, and quality of life and is a precursor for frailty in the older adult. This education program will help the nurse to recognize factors that place the older adult at risk for malnutrition, screen and assess nutritional status in the older adult, use appropriate nursing interventions to promote adequate nutrition, and screen for nutrition risk during transition of care. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES On completion of this chapter, the reader should be able to: 1. Recognize factors that place the older adult at risk for malnutrition 2. Discuss methods to screen and assess nutritional status in the older adult 3. Use appropriate nursing interventions in the hospitalized older adult who is either at risk for malnutrition or has malnutrition