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Dietetics and Nutrition in Palliative Care

Textbook of Palliative Care

Abstract

Good nutritional care is a fundamental component of palliative care provision. Managing issues associated with eating and drinking, weight loss, and changes in body image towards the end of life can be challenging for many patients and families, as well as for healthcare professionals. The best nutritional care happens when patients and families are provided with early, consistent, and evidence-based dietary assessment and guidance. As well as direct provision of care to patients and families, dietitians have a significant role in educating all members of the multidisciplinary care team on the provision of optimal nutritional care for patients with life limiting illness and in supporting the evidence base to practice through engagement in research. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the role of the dietitian as a member of the specialist palliative care team and to explore dietary interventions provided when incurable progressive illness is diagnosed and when a person approaches the end of life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. All Ireland Institute of Hospice & Palliative Care (AIIHPC), Dublin, Ireland

    Cathy Payne

  2. Institute of Nursing and Health Research, Ulster University, Newtownabbey, UK

    Cathy Payne

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  1. Cathy Payne
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Correspondence to Cathy Payne .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. HammondCare Learning and Research Centre, Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, New South Wales, Australia

    Roderick Duncan MacLeod

  2. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB-UGent End-of-Life Care Research Grou Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Lieve Van den Block

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Payne, C. (2018). Dietetics and Nutrition in Palliative Care. In: MacLeod, R., Van den Block, L. (eds) Textbook of Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_36-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_36-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31738-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31738-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Dietetics and Nutrition in Palliative Care
    Published:
    29 December 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_36-2

  2. Original

    Dietetics and Nutrition in Palliative Care
    Published:
    24 April 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_36-1

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