Nutrition Care Process

Introduction

The Nutrition Care Process (NCP) is designed to improve the consistency and quality of individualized care for patients/clients or groups and the predictability of the patient/client outcomes. It is not intended to standardize nutrition care for each patient/client, but to establish a standardized process for providing care. 

There are four steps in the process:

1. Nutrition Assessment
2. Nutrition Diagnosis
3. Nutrition Intervention
4. Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation

Nutrition Care Process Tutorial 

Learn about the Nutrition Care Process through a series of short modules:

• Six (6) separate modules
• Each module is approximately 10 minutes in length. 
• The modules are free.

NCP Tutorials

NCP Snapshots

The "Snapshot" handouts provide guided in-depth learning on the NCP and the standardized language in the Nutrition Care Process Terminology (eNCPT) Reference Manual. They are designed to help practitioners better understand and implement the NCP and Terminology.  Click on each title to download a copy of each Step in PDF format:

• Step 1: Nutrition Assessment
• Step 2: Nutrition Diagnosis
• Step 3: Nutrition Intervention
• Step 4: Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation

eNCPT 

The eNCPT, is a comprehensive guide for implementing the Nutrition Care Process using a standardized language. This web-based resource is improved from its predecessor (IDNT Reference Manual) and continues to offer all the peer-reviewed content along with improved features such as easy navigation, modern functionality, improved site organization and language translations. These translations will be a collaborative work between the Academy and interested national dietetic associations. Click to learn more about this invaluable resource.

NCP and the EAL

In the EAL, the Nutrition Care Process is used to serve as the context for the way questions are formulated for evidence analysis. Workgroup members find it helpful to keep assessment factors, relevant diagnoses, range of interventions, and the intended outcomes in mind when formulating the questions.  

Throughout the EAL, the evidence analysis questions are categorized by one of the 4 NCP categories. Evidence analysis questions that fall outside the NCP are categorized under Basic Research category. 

• To learn more about the Nutrition Care Process, please visit www.eatright.org/ncp

The NCPT and Electronic Health Records

The Academy continues to work toward including the concepts from the Nutrition Care Process and the specific terms from the Terminology in electronic health records (EHRs) in two important ways:

• Development of messaging standards for electronic health records
• Incorporation standardized informatics languages and language systems.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Health Informatics Infrastructure (ANDHII) 

ANDHII is a web-based platform available to all Academy members that enable RDNs to track nutrition care outcomes and advance evidence-based nutrition practice research.

While RDNs provide nutrition interventions to prevent, manage, and/or treat various health problems, the efficacy of nutrition interventions towards improved health outcomes can be difficult to prove. EHRs don’t always use uniform nutrition terminology, making it difficult to document and track nutritional data. Also, it remains difficult to combine data from different practice settings.

ANDHII fills that gap by offering secure online data collection from anywhere using the familiar NCP terminology (NCPT) and a format that makes it easy to integrate into practice workflow. The knowledge gained through the collection and analysis of information in ANDHII will add to the evidence base for nutrition practice and help ensure high-quality patient care.

The ANDHII platform facilitates multi-site and even multinational experimental research, allows secure upload of informed consent documentation, and offers a variety of privacy and compliance configurations as well as automatic conversion of units and time zones. To learn more, visit https//www.andhii.org 










For more information regarding these important initiatives, please email ncp@eatright.org.