Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay

Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay

Malnutrition has significantly increased in the ageing population resulting in a major health problem in the United Kingdom and is a cause and consequence of ill health. This essay will seek to critique three research papers based on Malnutrition in older hospitalised patient. It will include evaluation of strengths, limitations of the research and a reflection on how the researched was undertaken.Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay

Evidence has shown that malnutrition cost the National Health Service around thirteen billons a year resulting in one of the highest spend in health care (British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, 2009).Dunne (2009) also states that one in five people ranging from 65 and over will be affected by malnutrition by the year 2020. Malnutrition is therefore “a state in which a deficiency of nutrients such as energy, protein, vitamins, and mineral causes measurable adverse effects on body composition function or clinical outcome” (National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence, 2006). In light of the information above, this had stimulated an interest to conduct a research to analyse what is being done and what can be done to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition in older patient.Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay

Whilst out in placement, I witness nutrition fell low on the list of nursing priorities of care, not by choice but nurses have so many tasks to complete in a given day. I observe both nurses and health care assistant struggled to cope during meal times and expressed their frustration on the subject on few occasion. Also looking at it from a professional stand point, malnutrition can affect every system in the body leading patients to become vulnerable to illness. This can lead to complication and in the worst case death, it also increases patient’s length of stay in hospital and readmission of patients to hospital. It is vital that information that is used to address malnutrition is extracted from evidence based sources as this aims to provide care in a suitable and efficient way to patient (Craig & Smyth, 2007).Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay

I used critical appraisal skills programme to analyse my research paper as this model helped me to ascertain the relevance and importance a particular research topic relates to practice as well as conduct a systematic review of the article .It assess whether the three research paper was worth reading and helped me to make sense of the qualitative information (Cutcliffe & Ward, 2007).Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay

I obtained my three research paper by using search engine such as CINAHL, INTERNURSE and PUBMED. I searched CINAHL (2007 to 2013), INTERNURSE (2005 to 2013) and PUBMED (2007 to 2013) for articles published in English. The search strategy will be explained in details in the reflection section part of the essay and will be demonstrated in Table 1 and Table 2. Table three comprises of the three research which can be found in the appendix. Reflection is seen as an important aspect of nursing, as it improves the quality of care we give to patient as well as it can enhance practice and greater competence. Ghaye, Gillespie and Lillyman (2000) point out that, reflection is a central part of experiential learning and the improvement of practical knowledge. I have chosen to use Rolfe et al model over John’s model because it gave me a better understanding in comparison with John model. It consists of three simple questions which are what, so what and now what. This helped me to organise my thought process. In the next sections of the essay two tables will be shown to depict my search strategy along with the critical appraisal of the three research paper.Malnutrition in Older Hospitalised Patients Essay