A Joint Initiative between GUH and Community Catering Meals on Wheels

Background For patients in acute hospitals, the largest nutrition problem is under-nutrition, with the older person being the most at risk. Nurses have a fundamental role with respect to patients’ nutritional needs. The... [ view full abstract ]

Background
For patients in acute hospitals, the largest nutrition problem is under-nutrition, with the older person being the most at risk. Nurses have a fundamental role with respect to patients’ nutritional needs. The first and most important step is to assess the nutritional status of all patients on admission to hospital. If a patient is at risk of malnutrition, the nurse has a responsibility to commence a food chart and to monitor their weight weekly. Discharge planning is a key nursing role. Questions such as ‘how is this patient going to cope once they are discharged’ or ‘have they/caregiver the ability to provide at least one healthy meal per day’ are a fundamental questions the nurse ought to think of in order to provide quality patient care.

Aim
Improve older persons nutritional status from hospital to home.

Methodology
Early nutritional intervention in the community can reduce hospital stay and improve overall health and wellbeing. COPE Galway Community Catering provides nutritious meals to older people living independently in Galway city and county. Meals are prepared daily using the highest quality ingredients and are delivered to the person’s door by trained volunteers. COPE caters for a wide range of dietary requirements and provide both a short term service to aid recovery following a period of illness or a long term service if required. While planning the patients discharge, the nurse can inform the patient that such a service is available. Following that, either the nurse or the patient themselves can make a referral to the meals on wheels (MOW) service.

Key Findings
To date, 50 patients have been referred to MOW. A quality of life telephone survey identified the following positive comments:
“ very happy with service”
“don’t need to stand at cooker anymore”
“love the food”
“saves me trying to cook”