Nutrition in Wound Healing
Resource to help raise awareness of the role of nutrition in wound healing
Identifying Malnutrition - Screening Tools
Formal screening tools identify those who may be at risk of malnutrition, enabling the healthcare worker to ensure that such patients receive a thorough nutritional assessment. A number of screening tools are available and the tool selected depends upon it being appropriate to the clinical setting.
It has been recommended that all patients should be screened for malnutrition (Williams, 2005), particularly those with pressure ulcers (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2005).
Completing a food chart can also be an effective tool that may be utilised to provide an estimation of the nutritional intakes of the patient (Gray and Cooper, 1999), and thus assist in the identification of possible cases of malnutrition.
Think about what screening tools are used in your clinical setting? When are they used, and how are the findings acted upon?
