Enhancing the nutritional care of older people by recording actual body weight: a quality improvement project
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Enhancing the nutritional care of older people by recording actual body weight: a quality improvement project

Cathy Shannon Registered nurse, high dependency unit, Daisy Hill Hospital, Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Newry, County Armagh, Northern Ireland

Why you should read this article:
  • To recognise that accurate, reliable and regular weight measurement is an important intervention to prevent and manage malnutrition in people aged over 65 years

  • To read about a project in an emergency assessment unit that improved the recording of older patients’ actual weight and the completion of Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool scores

  • To identify the need to involve nursing staff at the outset of quality improvement projects if they are to be meaningful and sustainable

Malnutrition can have significant negative effects on older people’s health, as well as a cost burden for health and social care services. Accurate, reliable and regular measurement of a patient’s weight is important for prompt identification and management of malnutrition. This article discusses a quality improvement project that was undertaken in an emergency assessment unit for patients aged over 74 years in Northern Ireland. The aim of the project was to improve completion of Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) scores for patients attending the unit by nursing staff recording actual weight rather than recalled weight. A simple intervention of relocating weighing scales in the unit’s triage bay resulted in an increase in completed MUST scores from 60% (n=18) to 97% (n=29) in the six months following the intervention. Feedback from members of the multidisciplinary team indicated that the intervention had a positive effect on the care they provided to patients and on their working relationships with colleagues.

Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2023.e2180

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@cshannon3105

Correspondence

cathy.shannon@southerntrust.hscni.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Shannon C (2023) Enhancing the nutritional care of older people by recording actual body weight: a quality improvement project. Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2023.e2180

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the staff who worked at Belfast City Hospital Direct, Northern Ireland, for their cooperation throughout the project

Published online: 24 October 2023

Want to read more?

Already subscribed? Log in

OR

Unlock full access to RCNi Plus today

Save over 50% on your first 3 months

Your subscription package includes:
  • Unlimited online access to all 10 RCNi Journals and their archives
  • Customisable dashboard featuring 200+ topics
  • RCNi Learning featuring 180+ RCN accredited learning modules
  • RCNi Portfolio to build evidence for revalidation
  • Personalised newsletters tailored to your interests
Subscribe
RCN student member? Try Nursing Standard Student

Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now

Or