Ólöf G. Geirsdóttir - Interdisciplinary Nutritional Management and Care for Older Adults: An Evidence-Based Practical Guide for Nurses

The aim of this book series is to provide a comprehensive guide to nursing management and care for older adults, addressing specific problems in nursing and allied health professions. It provides a unique resource for nurses, enabling them to provide high-quality care for older adults in all care settings. The respective volumes are designed to provide practitioners with highly accessible information on evidence-based management and care for older adults, with a focus on practical guidance and advice.

Though demographic trends in developed countries are sometimes assumed to be limited to said countries, it is clear that similar issues are now affecting rapidly developing countries in Asia and South America. As such, the series will not only benefit nurses working in Europe, North America, Australasia and many developed countries, but also elsewhere. Offering seminal texts for nurses working with older adults in both inpatient and outpatient settings, it will especially support them during the first five years after nurse registration, as they move towards specialist and advanced practice. The series will also be of value to student nurses, employing a highly accessible style suitable for a broader readership.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15860

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When an older person is recovering or rehabilitating following an episode of ill health, injury, or surgery, one of the most important things those caring for them can do is to make sure that the nutritional aspects of their care are prioritised. Well-nourished patients are a sign of good quality care. Lack of enough to eat and drink is both a care quality and a patient-safety issue because of the fundamental importance of food and water to human life and the associated threats to health, well-being, and life. Malnourishment and dehydration are strongly linked with functional decline, frailty, sarcopenia, falls and fragility fracture in older people along with many other complications and health challenges including problems with rehabilitation and full recovery. Food and drink brings pleasure, and mealtimes are also social occasions which support social and mental well-being: facets that can be lost during both acute and chronic ill health. Without good nutrition, recovery from health challenges, injury, and surgery is, at best, delayed and, at worst, impossible. Health and social care services are failing those older people whose undernutrition and malnutrition are either not recognised or recognised but inadequately acted upon.

This book is one in a series entitled Perspectives in Nursing Management and Care for Older Adults ( https://www.springer.com/series/15860 ). The series aims to provide a comprehensive guide to nursing management and care for older adults, addressing specific problems in nursing and allied health professions. It provides a unique resource for nurses, enabling them to provide high-quality care for older adults in all care settings. The respective volumes are designed to provide practitioners with highly accessible information on evidence-based management and care for older adults, with a focus on practical guidance and advice. This title is central to that aim. Both the series and this title were conceived by the Fragility Fracture Network ( https://www.fragilityfracturenetwork.org/ ). Consequently, some of the discussion is based in the orthogeriatric setting. Even so, the information provided and learning offered are equally transferrable to other settings in which care is provided to older people.

An overarching theme within this book is the fundamental importance of an interdisciplinary approach to nutritional care. The intended audience for this book is all health professionals working with older people so it will be of use to anyone providing geriatric care in any setting. Even though the book speaks to all health and social care professionals, all of whom have responsibility for food and nutrition, it has greatest significance for the nursing team. This is not because nurses bear greater responsibility for nutrition than other members of the interdisciplinary team, but because in most clinical settings there are usually more nurses than other professionals and nurses spend more time with patients, particularly when they are eating. Nurses are often champions of good nutrition and can help to put nutritional care high on the agenda of the entire team so that full collaboration of every team member can have the greatest benefit and positive impact on patient outcomes. It is of note that much of the research considering the impact of educating health professionals about nutrition is focused on medical practitioners and medical students. In fact, the influence of the nursing team is likely to be much greater because of their close clinical proximity to patients and much more can be done to ensure that they are well informed and educated as well as able to act on that knowledge and understanding through timely appropriate nutritional interventions.