Nutrition Assessment

The nutritional care process, you would realize, begins with nutritional assessment. Nutrition  assessment  is  the  evaluation  of  an individual's nutritional  status  and nutrient  requirements.  It  is a  systematic  process of  obtaining,  verifying, and interpreting  data  in  order  to  make decisions about the nature  and  cause  of nutrition-related problems. It is  an ongoing, dynamic process that  involves  not only initial data collection, but also  continual reassessment and analysis of patients/clients/ groups needs. The purpose of  nutrition assessment is to:

Obtain adequate information in order to identify nutrition-related problems,

Define accurately an individual's nutritional status,

Determine the level of nutritional support that individuals need, and

Monitor changes in the nutritional status and the effect of nutritional intervention.