Nutrition Guest Speaker Blog

The key takeaway point from the guest lecture today is the importance of protein. Many individuals in the hospital do not eat enough food, especially protein, and it causes them to lose lean body mass and become weaker and frail. Clients need to be educated on the importance of eating enough, especially while they are in the hospital. My grandfather was in the hospital this summer and I went to visit him one day. While I was there, he was served his lunch and my grandfather immediately turned it away, stating that he did not want to eat anything. My grandma tried to get him to eat something, but he refused. I knew that his goal was to get discharged from Acute care and go to an inpatient rehab room. I told him that he was going to need to tolerate 3 hours of therapy a day at the inpatient rehab and that he really needed to eat to get his strength and energy back. His eyes lit up because he had no idea that it would require that and no one had told him about the importance of eating in the hospital. After today, I would have told him how important the protein was especially. This shows how important it is to inform and educate the clients so they know how their eating would affect their recovery.

One intervention is a group cooking class in an assisted living home. It can help the residents socialize and enjoy cooking, while the OT will educate them on the importance of their diet.

Another intervention is educating an individual in acute care about how their diet can assist with their recovery and help them regain the strength needed to be discharged, as well as the importance of continuing the healthy diet after discharge to continue the recovery.