Nutrition

A client refuses the hospital meal tray and you document "noncompliant with diet." But the real problem isn't the client — it's the meal plan that ignored their beliefs.

A client's albumin is 3.0 g/dL but they were admitted yesterday — does that actually tell you about their nutrition? The answer changes everything about your assessment.

A malnourished patient can look well-nourished on paper if you skip the right screening tool. Knowing which tool to use — and when — changes outcomes before a single calorie is ordered.

The client recovering from an MI asks why their hospital tray has no salt packets and includes oatmeal instead of eggs — your explanation connects diet directly to survival.

A client eats a "healthy" fruit smoothie and their blood glucose spikes to 280 mg/dL. The issue isn't what they ate — it's how much and when. Carbohydrate management is the centerpiece of diabetic nutrition.

A stroke patient coughs every time they drink water but tolerates pudding fine. The texture you select next could prevent aspiration pneumonia — or cause it.

A post-op bowel resection patient is tolerating clear liquids — but advancing the diet too fast or choosing the wrong progression can trigger dangerous complications. Knowing the GI diet ladder saves your patient.

A patient with chronic kidney disease eats a banana and a glass of orange juice — and hours later develops a life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmia. The renal diet exists to prevent exactly this.

An NG tube that looks correctly placed can still be sitting in a lung. The verification method you choose — and the one you skip — can mean the difference between feeding and aspiration pneumonia.

A PEG tube site that looks red and crusty might be normal healing — or the start of a buried bumper. Knowing the difference protects the patient from a surgical emergency.

TPN bypasses the entire GI tract and delivers nutrition directly into the bloodstream — but the wrong dextrose concentration in the wrong line can be fatal. Do you know which access is required and why?

Your tube-fed patient suddenly develops cramping, distension, and a residual volume of 350 mL. Your next action determines whether they aspirate or recover — do you know the threshold?