In this session, we will begin discussing nutrition support. Determining a patient's baseline nutritional status allows us to determine how best to meet their nutritional needs. This is an important aspect of critical care. In addition, questions about total parenteral nutrition (TPN) tend to show up on NAPLEX!
Learning Objectives
1. Recognize and understand terms associated with malnutrition and factors contributing to malnutrition
2. Describe components of malnutrition screening and assessment (i.e. review the tools for screening and assessment)
3. Describe anthropometric measurements used for nutrition assessment
4. Understand the utility of laboratory parameters for assessment and monitoring of nutrition status (i.e. albumin, transferrin, pre-albumin, CRP)
5. Identify the signs and symptoms of nutrient deficiencies (i.e. trace elements, vitamins and essential fatty acids)
6. Describe methods used to determine daily fluid and caloric requirements (you do not need to memorize equations, but need to understand the components used in the equations)
7. Determine the most appropriate type of nutrition intervention in a given case scenario
8. Select daily protein, dextrose, lipid, calorie, and fluid needs for a patient based on a given patient case scenario (no need to memorize exact amounts for each component, but you should know which factors increase or decrease needs)