Post-acute and long-term care can include long-term acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, home health agencies, hospice, assisted living facilities, and correctional facilities. Clients/residents in these settings have been hospitalized recently and usually have complex needs, so a person-centered, individualized process to provide care is necessary. With the population age increasing, there is a growing need for food and nutrition professionals' services to ensure that individual dietary needs are met.
The nutrition care process is designed to improve the consistency and quality of individualized care. The Academy connects RDNs and members in practice to resources for providing post-acute and long-term nutrition care.
Standards for RDNs in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Nutrition
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Revised 2018 Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists(Competent, Proficient, and Expert) in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Nutrition provide RDNs with a self-evaluation guide for assuring competence, identifying knowledge and skills to enhance expertise, and advance level of practice in PALTC nutrition.