Intensivists' cognizance of nutrition management and its determinants in ICUs in Guizhou province, China.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the Intensivists' cognizance of nutritional management and its determinants, and to provide evidence for standardizing nutritional therapy with protocols. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: From April to July 2021, a multi-stage sampling method was used to investigate the nutritional cognizance of critical care physicians in secondary and tertiary hospitals in Guizhou Province, China; Questionnaires and scales were used as survey tools. The questionnaires sought general information about the respondents and documented their nutrition cognizance and practice. Five scalar dimensions explored nutritional management, with answers scored for 1-5 points, 3 points being the pass score. RESULTS: 322 respondents from 147 hospitals were surveyed. The average score was passable, but not good at 3.37±0.71 (p<0.01 with 3.0 as reference). Among the five dimensions, evaluation and monitoring of nutritional status had the highest score (3.79±0.67, p<0.01), the understanding of nutritional preparations had the lowest (3.09±0.86, p>0.05), and the scores of other dimensions ranged from 3.21 to 3.49. Almost 70% of intensivists said that they would give priority to other than nutritional therapeutic measures in actual clinical practice. But 96% thought it necessary to strengthen and emphasise nutritional management. CONCLUSIONS: Critical care physicians' knowledge and understanding of nutritional therapy are limited, especially in the use of supportive preparations; Recourse to protocols and standardized nutritional management of assistance may depend on training, assigned role, peer expectations and health system policy, each of which has the potential for advancement in the interest of better nutritional care in provincial Guizhou.