Weight Loss Prevention
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LOOKING FORWARD
In sum, our weight loss prevention intervention enables nursing homes to individualize care so that residents get what they need without overwhelming the staff. It's a practical, efficient alternative to providing suboptimal feeding assistance to all residents, which is the usual practice in nursing homes (14, 17).
In the following sections, we present instructions and protocols for accomplishing each of the four steps required to implement the weight loss prevention intervention:
- Assess resident risk for weight loss
- Individualize feeding assistance
- Implement new staffing strategies
- Monitor quality of feeding assistance
These four steps are also included in the nutrition software program, which can be used to organize and interpret all of the assessment results.
We designed the intervention and the software so that both meet federal practice guidelines for nutritional care in nursing homes. Throughout, we offer suggestions for tailoring the intervention to suit the needs of your residents and staff. We also point out additional uses for the information you'll be collecting in order to maximize the intervention's utility. Finally, recognizing that most nursing homes are understaffed at mealtimes, we identify trade-offs you can choose to provide the best care possible given your facility's resources. There's one caveat, however: In order to achieve results comparable to ours, you must complete all four steps; if you skip one, expect to see different, possibly less desirable outcomes.
Two prerequisites are recommended before you start: 1) enlist top-level support from administrators and management staff to facilitate acceptance of the new program by direct care staff; and 2) allow extra time at the beginning to climb the learning curve. Trust us: the intervention consumes less staff time the longer you administer it.
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