Defining and evaluating the role of dietitians in intensive care: State of play

SummaryBackground & aimsIntensive Care is a relatively new work area for dietitians in Australia and New Zealand. It is unclear how many dietitians are working in intensive care units (ICUs) and what their level of involvement is.MethodsThe study was a complete population study, surveying all 182 adult Australian and New Zealand ICUs on a list obtained from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS). An 18-question telephone survey was implemented to explore dietitians’ practices in ICU.ResultsAt least one dietitian from each of the 182 hospitals participated in the survey (100% response rate). Thirteen ICUs had no dietitian service. In the remainder there was wide variation in dietitians’ involvement, ranging from occasional consulting to daily attendance at the ICU round, identifying and assessing patients requiring dietitian input, prescribing parenteral, enteral or oral nutrition support, ordering laboratory tests, and contributing to all nutrition-related decision-making in the ICU.ConclusionsThe wide variation in dietitians’ roles and responsibilities in the intensive care units across Australasia reflects the rapid recent growth in this area. The results of this survey may suggest some useful strategies that dietitians could implement to increase their involvement in the ICU setting.