What Is Nutrition Support Therapy?
All people need food to live. Sometimes a person cannot eat any or enough food because of an illness. The stomach or bowel may not be working quite right, or a person may have had surgery to remove part or all of these organs. Under those conditions, nutrition must be supplied in a different way. Nutrition can be provided either via tube feedings into the digestive tract (enteral nutrition) or, when the digestive tract cannot be used, via an intravenous solution into the veins (parenteral nutrition). The amount, type, and route of nutrition are tailored specifically to each patient with the goal being to improve patient outcomes, minimize infections, and allow patients to live their lives as normally as possible. Patients can receive these therapies in the hospital, at home, or in rehabilitation or long-term care facilities. Nutrition Support Professionals work in a variety of settings including hospitals, home care agencies, long-term care facilities, research, and academia. They include dietitians, pharmacists, nurses, and physicians and may work either independently or as part of a Nutrition Support Team. They are specialists in providing and managing enteral and parenteral nutrition in diverse patient populations from pediatrics to geriatrics.
Read more about this topic: American Society For Parenteral And Enteral Nutrition
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