Assessing Cancer Nursing Practices’ Impact on Monitoring Patients’ Nutrition

Malnutrition and other nutrition-related problems are common in patients with cancer and are frequently noted during their first medical oncology visits. Patients with cancer remain among the most undernourished of all patient groups. It is critically important to detect and treat malnutrition early. Multidisciplinary interventions, based on collaborations between oncologists, nurses, and dietitians are the key for success. Because cancer nurses are in frequent contact with patients, they are ideally situated to monitor the risk and detect early signs of malnutrition and to refer, manage, and regularly assess nutrition-related concerns. Therefore, cancer nurses require a strong fundamental understanding of malnutrition-related issues, ongoing education, and comprehension of existing guidelines. Sulosaari and colleagues summarized the evidence to support cancer nursing practice and described the importance of nutrition in cancer care.

A systematic review of literature was conducted, and the analysis was guided by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism guidelines on nutrition in cancer patients.

The literature review yielded 15 papers that showed that malnutrition negatively influenced a range of parameters and outcomes, including mortality, length of hospital stay, and quality of life. These studies highlighted that early detection of malnutrition, regular assessment, and medical nutrition care, as well as patient education and support, need to be based on individual needs and preferences, as well as psychosocial, economic, environmental, and familial factors.

The investigators concluded that nutrition-related challenges remain an issue for healthcare professional teams and cancer nurses play a significant role in overcoming these barriers. Nevertheless, nurses’ function and responsibility are incompletely addressed in most published research. Therefore, it is necessary to support multidisciplinary research with more practical targeted tools that are tailored to the needs of oncology nurses who can help overcome these existing gaps.

Source

Sulosaari V, Beurskens J, Erickson N, et al. Nutrition in people with cancer: overview of reviews to summarise the evidence for cancer nursing practice. Ann Oncol. 2021;32(suppl_5):S1278.