discussion response

Respond to your colleagues who were assigned different topics than you. Explain a patient scenario in which your colleague’s guidelines might not be appropriate. Then, explain how you would provide care for the patient in the scenario. Finally, explain how you, as an advanced practice nurse, might be able to impact issues related to these screening guidelines

Nutrition

 Women’s nutritional health is vital to a woman’s quality of life, reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes (Measure, 2019). Although nutritional needs are very similar between men and women, women have some unique nutritional needs. For example, calcium, iron and folic acid are particularly important for women and affect their bone health and density (HHS, 2019). 

Women have different nutritional needs during different stages of life such as during pregnancy, menopause or during breastfeeding (HHS, 2019). Women are more prone to developing health problems related to nutrition such as celiac disease or iron-deficiency anemia (HHS,2019). Women process some substances differently and burn fewer calories at rest and during exercise than men do (HHS, 2019). 

Screening Tool-Limitations/Strengths

Screening tools for nutrition can be useful in determining the nutritional requirements of patients, however, most of them evaluate for malnutrition. One screening assessment tool that can be utilized in assessing nutritional status is the subjective global assessment (SGA). (Reber et al., 2019) The SGA includes information on a medical history such as weight loss, dietary intake changes, gastrointestinal and functional impairment as well as information from the physical exam including loss of subcutaneous fat, muscle wasting, ankle edema, and ascites (Reber et al., 2019). Patients are then classified as either well nourished, moderately or suspected of being malnourished, or severely malnourished (Reber et al., 2019). 

Limitations of the SGA is that it only classifies patients into three general groups and it doesn’t reflect subtle changes in nutritional status (Reber et al., 2019). Another limitation is that it is subjective and its sensitivity, precision and reproducibility over time have not been extensively studied (Reber at al., 2019). A strength of this tool is that it provides a lot of information that can be useful in determining a patient’s nutritional needs and thus aide the provider in developing an effective plan of care for the patient. 

Clinical Decision Making

Nutrition affects the overall health of patients including the severity of their disease processes, how they process medications, stress level, mood and sleep. Since nutrition is such an important part of health, the SGA or similar tool is something I would consider utilizing in my practice. Nutritional status will be at the core of my patient’s plan of care and something that I will strive to help my patients keep at a health level.

Conclusion

Nutrition is a basic need of life a plays a major role in health promotion and disease prevention (Reber et al., 2019). Due to the differences in nutritional needs of patients, it is vital that the provider takes this into account when providing a plan of care for women. Their nutritional needs may vary and greatly impact their overall health compared to a male patient. Therefore, nutritional status should always be an important component to a patient’s plan of care.

References

Measure Evaluation (2019). Family planning and reproductive health indicators database. Retrieved from https://www.measureevaluation.org/prh/rh_indicators/womens-health/womens-nutrition

Reber, E., Gomes, F., Vasiloglou, M.F., Schuetz, P. & Stanga, Z. (2019). Nutritional risk screening and assessment.Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(7), 1065. Doi: 10.3390/jcm8071065

U.S Department of Health & Human Services (2019). Healthy eating and women. Retrieved from https://www.womenshealth.gov/healthy-eating/healthy-eating-and-women#6