Abstract:
Adequate nursing knowledge of malnutrition screening and taking accurate anthropometry is essential in detecting infants and children at risk of malnutrition and its associated complications whilst in hospital. Currently, there is no standardised formal education for nurses at Starship Child Health, Auckland, New Zealand, on malnutrition screening and taking accurate anthropometry. The aim of this study was to develop, deliver, and evaluate the feasibility of an online learning module for nurses that describes the use of malnutrition screening tools and their role in the patient care continuum and standardised weighing and measuring techniques for inpatients at Starship.
This study was conducted in two parts. Part one involved developing and piloting two online learning modules on malnutrition screening and accurate anthropometry taking delivered using the Ko Awatea LEARN platform. Part two involved evaluating the learning modules using a prospective pre-post study design and an ad-hoc satisfaction questionnaire in fifty-one nurses over a two-week period.
There was a significant increase in knowledge after completing the learning modules, illustrated by the percentage of nurses who answered all questions correctly in the post-test (52.9%) compared to the pre-test (7.8%) (z = -4.6, p < .001). These results demonstrated that knowledge gain was achieved across malnutrition screening, its process and documentation, and standardised anthropometric protocols. A majority of nurses felt well informed about malnutrition screening and taking anthropometry on completion of the modules. Nurses had positive perceptions and attitudes on the learning modules. Embedding the modules within the already established Ko Awatea LEARN educational platform resulted in positive perceptions and attitudes to complete the learning tasks. There was a disconnect between the perception of confidence in taking accurate anthropometry, which was not reflected in the number of nurses who correctly answered questions relating to the standardised procedures when taking these measurements.
The findings from this study provide evidence that some form of mandated education on malnutrition screening and accurate anthropometry taking should be implemented at Starship Child Health. Overall, this will increase malnutrition screening rates at the ward level and allow earlier detection of malnutrition risk in infants and children.