aims

The current proposal aims to build upon the existing foundation of NEPHELP to:

• Quantifiably improve the knowledge, understanding and application of nutrition in a cross-section of UK doctors and other healthcare professionals;

• Create an Implementation Pathway Project (IPP) enabling decision makers to use a synthesis of tools and evidence to implement nutrition education in healthcare as a key systems improvement lever;

• To design a bespoke, sustainable, cross-disciplinary educational programmes on nutrition as applied to health, that actively engage patients and carers;

• To deliver a multidisciplinary, stepwise, blended learning focussed package targeting malnutrition in the acute hospital and community setting;

• To engage with key stakeholders including healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, dieticians) at all stages of their training (including pre-registration); and

• To increase meaningful screening, assessment and treatment of malnutrition, for example, the use of the MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool).

BACKGROUND

Suboptimal nutrition management in healthcare systems is a leading cause of morbidity. This can have far reaching economic consequences in an already poorly resourced setting such as the NHS in the UK. Malnutrition costs the UK economy £13 billion annually (BAPEN, 2018).

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Deficiencies in awareness, knowledge and skills can be ameliorated by appropriate education/training for the healthcare workforce. In the UK context HEE (Health Education England) is responsible for the training and education of healthcare professionals in England and it is imperative that education schemes encompass core competencies as applied to everyday practice using local available resources.

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NNEdPro hosts a diversity of expertise and brings over a decade of dedicated experience in empowering healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses and dietitians) to further nutrition education. Using an implementation science approach and supported by an unrestricted educational award in 2017 from the Medical Nutrition International Industry (MNI) in conjunction with the European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ESPEN) and its UK counterpart, the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN), NNEdPro has built upon previous learning since 2008 and undertaken key groundwork in designing a bespoke, potentially sustainable, cross-disciplinary educational programme on nutrition as applied to healthcare, that has also actively engage patients and carers.

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To date, key stakeholders have included healthcare professionals (including doctors and dietitians) with the view to increase meaningful screening, assessment and treatment of malnutrition, manifesting in its principal forms. This project over 2017-18 has sought to lay the foundations for Nutrition Education Policy in Healthcare Practice (NEPHELP).

mni award 2017

The NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health was awarded with the MNI Grant 2017 for its outstanding project “Nutrition Education Policy for Healthcare Practice”.

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The award was consigned on 11 September 2017, during the ESPEN – ENHA – MNI Joint Session 2017 on Optimal Nutrition Care for All, by MNI President - Tim Meyerhoff - to Dr Minha Rajput-Ray, Harrison Carter, Sumantra Ray and Celia Laur.

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Click here to watch the presentation of the project by Dr Minha Rajput-Ray

project management committee

Executive

Non-Executive

Dr Elstead Alspeth
Preya Amin
Dr Jenny Blythe

Professor Michael Dixon
Ian Broadley
James Bradfield
Karen Chamberlain 

Dr Dominic Crocombe
Dr Tim Eden, RD
Dr Sile Griffin
Duleni Herath
Ally Jaffee 

Advisory panel

* Original Grant Applicants

Dr Josephine Ruwende (Panel co-chair)

Dr Celia Laur* (Panel co-chair)

Dr Trevor Smith
Professor Heather Keller
Professor Martin Kohlmeier
Dr Lisa Sharkey
Dr Minha Rajput-Ray*
Dr Rajna Golubic
Pauline Douglas, RD
Dr Harrison Carter*