Quality indicators of nutritional care: A survey of Belgian, French-speaking caregivers

• Published in: Nutrition clinique et métabolisme 2016-03, Vol.30 (1), p.65-66
• Main Authors: Schelte-Godet, C., Fraipont, V., Gazzotti, C., Lacrosse, D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0985-0562; 1768-3092
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nupar.2016.01.081

Hospitals are encouraged to improve their practice in particular through an evaluation of the quality of nutritional care, either in an institution's accreditation process or the application of a ministerial program, such as the National Plan for Nutrition and Health (plan national nutrition santé, PNNS) or plan elaborated by the federal council for nursing activity quality (Conseil fédéral pour la qualité de l’activité infirmière, CFQAI). In the nutrition field, quality indicators validated are steel unclear. It is in this process that the InterCLANs (inter-hospitals committee bringing together healthcare professionals trained in nutrition from different Belgian hospitals) has collected and analysed several propositions from caregivers through an electronic questionnaire. The purpose of the investigation was to determine whether the approach of CFQAI is applicable daily in care units, whether the indicators of the program are relevant and whether other nutritional indicators could be more appropriate. The questionnaire was elaborated based on the content of the CFQAI program and data from the literature [1–3]. It was sent by e-mail to members of the InterCLANs: out of 80 shipments, 29 responded (36%), 18 from French-speaking hospitals. The survey consisted of 21 questions divided into three parts: presentation of the respondent and its institution (five questions), knowledge of the CFQAI program (nine questions) and ideal indicators (seven questions, five with free text answers). Thirty-eight percent of those who responded were medicals doctors, 34% dieticians, 17% nurses, 7% pharmacists and 8% others. In 90% of case, the institutions have a CLAN (Comité de liaison alimentation et nutrition: liaison committee for feeding and nutrition), 79% had a nutrition committee and 21% did not have any of those. All respondents were members of one of the two structures. 90% knew the CFQAI program and 51% were personally implicated. The nursing managers were in charge of the program in 62% of cases. In more than half of the cases, the collect was not computerized and in 60% it was occurring only 4 days per year. The results were rarely disseminated to caregivers and other staff. 61% of people who answered register other nutrition quality indicators. In French-speaking Belgian hospitals, organizations such as CLAN or nutrition committee are often existing and the CFQAI program is well known, the collect of quality indicators remains fragmented and feedback to caregiver