This article is transferred from: National Party Media Information Public Platform
“The National Health Commission stipulates that 150 beds must be equipped with 1 clinical nutritionist, but there are very few medical institutions that can do it. There is a huge gap,” said Cai Wei, member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Chinese Nutrition Society, and director of the Shanghai Institute of Pediatrics, in an interview with a Health Times reporter.
Cai Wei, Member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Nutrition Society, and Director of the Shanghai Institute of Pediatrics
The gap is huge!
There is a shortage of 40,000-60,000 nutritionists
Professor Cai Wei introduced that hospital inpatients have the highest incidence of malnutrition population, this will not only prolong the hospital stay of the patient, but also reduce the treatment effect of the disease. Compared with expensive drug treatment, nutritional therapy can not only significantly improve the survival and quality of life of patients, but also save a lot of treatment costs.
Nutrition therapy needs professional clinicians with good nutrition knowledge to perform for patients. “The ratio of clinical nutritionists to beds should reach 1:150”, issued by the General Office of the State Council in 2017. The National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030) lists “Clinical Nutrition Action” as a major action.
However, according to the statistics of the National Medical Quality Management and Control Information Network System in 2020, the number of nutrition physicians in the country is 3,553, compared with the nutritional diagnosis and treatment needs of hundreds of millions of inpatients and billions of outpatients every year and the number of nutritionists in the country. According to the ratio of beds, the shortage of nutritionists is 40,000-60,000.
“At present, physicians and dietitians are the main providers of nutrition therapy for patients in hospitals. Physicians are mainly from clinicians engaged in clinical nutrition research, and they are mainly in the field of general surgery. Physicians from the Department of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Burns have joined, but they are far from enough in terms of quantity and quality. Not only is there a shortage of nutritionists, but also the quality is low, making it difficult to communicate with doctors.” Professor Cai Wei said that the quality and strength of nutritionist training Urgently need to increase.
Strong training!
The systematic and standardized training mechanism needs to be improved
“At the current stage of our country, from college education to post-graduation education, there is a lack of systematic , the system and mechanism of standardizing training.” Professor Cai Wei further stated that there are not many colleges and universities for nutrition education, and there are few graduates, so it is necessary to standardize the education of colleges and universities, and do a good job of the main channel for undergraduate nutritionist training. Moreover, it is necessary to strengthen the training of relevant clinical nutrition knowledge for physicians after graduation, so that more physicians understand the importance of nutrition to the prognosis of diseases, pay attention to the nutritional status of patients, and provide nutritional support in a reasonable and timely manner.
In 2021, the article “The Current Situation of the Construction of Nutrition Departments in Some Tertiary Medical Institutions in 24 Provinces and Cities in my country” published by the Nutrition Physician Professional Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and others in the Journal of Nutrition aims to improve the professionalism of nutrition professionals. In terms of diagnosis and treatment capabilities, two suggestions are put forward: first, to promote and improve the construction of a clinical nutrition professional team (including medical and nursing technical professionals), especially the construction of a nutritionist team should be synchronized with the training and training of clinical specialists, and adopt the “5+3” +X” training mechanism to improve the professional work level of clinical nutrition; secondly, straighten out the nutrition department setting and professional title promotion sequence, standardize the career development path of nutrition department professionals, and enhance the sense of professional identity and honor.
These two measures will help to promote the quantity and quality of nutritionists.
In addition, the “National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030)” mentions that it is necessary to comprehensively promote clinical nutrition work, increase multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment models, set up nutrition support teams, and carry out nutrition therapy.
“Nutrition physicians should not work alone, but should cooperate with multiple disciplines, such as joint diagnosis and treatment with other departments such as gastroenterology and pediatrics in the hospital. In addition, nutrition physicians and registered dietitians should jointly carry out clinical work. , learn from each other’s strengths and complement each other’s weaknesses, and formulate more scientific nutritional treatment plans for patients.” Professor Cai Wei said.
Editor-in-charge: Wang Nan
Editor-in-chief: Tian Ru
Proofreading: Qiao Jingfang
This article is from [People’s Daily Health Client], only representative Author’s point of view. The national party media information public platform provides information release and dissemination services.
ID: jrtt