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For Example, The Latter Design Would Have Enabled Knowledge Levels To Be ...

For example, the latter design would have enabled knowledge levels to be monitored over time, as well as allow causal inferences about the link between clinical conditions (e.g. patient requests for nutritional advice, or changes in the sources of nutritional information, e.g. dieticians versus doctors, or the internet). The strength of this study on the other hand is the power analysis carried out to establish the required sample size. In addition, it also provides some indication of the reliability and validity of the questionnaire used. These advantages inspire more confidence in Schaller and James' (2005) findings compared with some previous, less vigorous studies (e.g. Perry, 1997). Other research has been found which also highlights deficiencies in nurses' nutritional awareness. For example Crogan et al (2001) recruited nursing staff from five nursing homes in North America. Administration of a comprehensive nutritional knowledge questionnaire revealed an average performance of score of just 65%, rather similar to Warber et al's (2000)
Findings above.
From the findings above, whilst there was evidence of knowledgeable and proactive nursing care, it also appeared that there were fairly widespread deficiencies in the knowledge, communication and co-ordination required to ensure consistent good practice. One would question the reason for this and what role do nurses' actually play in providing nutritional care to their patients.
Nurses Role/Involvement in Nutrition
Nurses are not solely responsible for nutritional care but they play a potentially significant role in patient feeding and the identification of vulnerable patients (Holmes 1999). The British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN 1999) recommended that nurses hold primary responsibility for the nutritional care of in-patients. It argued that food should be served by nurses, supported where necessary by other grades of staff trained for this purpose (such as housekeeper or care assistants). BAPEN also recommended that nurses should ensure assistance with eating, the provision of special utensils where required, and the monitoring of patients' food intake. Despite the above, one would question as to why nurses are often reluctant to get too involved in nutritional care. Karin (2004) in his study mentioned that it could be possible to improve the nursing care of the patient in relation to their nutritional needs by identifying the barriers, that prevent the nurses from taking active participation in the nutritional care of the patients and taking adequate measures to tackle the situation by removing the barriers to progression in a sequential manner.

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