Abstract
Background: Surgical nutrition is a critical part of surgery that many surgeons overlook or undervalue. No previous studies are present to fill the gap of knowledge in Saudi Arabia about nutritional screening awareness and support among surgeons.
Objectives: to measure the knowledge and awareness of nutritional screening and support among surgeons in Makkah province, and to define their approach toward its implementation.
Methods: a cross-sectional study was done and surgeons of all specialties at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia were included. Study instrument: a predesigned questionnaire was sent to the targeted participants. The questionnaire included items to collect data about surgeons' gender, specialty, position, work duration, institution, screening of nutritional status of their hospitalized patients, patients screened for malnutrition, system used in nutrition screening, participation in meetings on clinical nutrition, calculation of daily energy requirement and practice in nutritional support. Ethical considerations: ethical approval was obtained from the research ethics committee of King Abdul-Aziz University.
Results: Only 25.4% of the participants were screening all patients for their nutritional status; 39.8% were screening only those who appear undernourished by inspection and 50.8% were using multiple methods to determine the nutritional risk. 61% did not participate in meetings on clinical nutrition, 14.4% participated in more than 2 yearly meetings, and 39.8% started nutritional support in a patient with a high nutrition risk 10-14 days prior to the operation. Most of them (58.5%) did not calculate daily energy requirement and consult a dietitian; 59.3% mentioned that they give postoperative nutritional support if the patient will not be able to fulfill his/her nutritional needs by oral food intake. 34.7% did not prescribe nutritional support products to patients when discharged if given nutritional support during hospital stay and 33.1% ceased oral intake of solid food in a patient who will be undergoing a major abdominal operation at midnight before the operation day. 30.5% cease the oral intake of clear fluids in a patient who will be undergoing a major abdominal operation at midnight before the operation day and 38.1% give standard nutritional support to patients at nutritional risk who will undergo a major abdominal operation for cancer. Females and surgeons who participated in more than 2 meetings on clinical nutrition in a year had a significant higher percentage of those who were screening the nutritional status of their hospitalized patients.
Conclusion: Our findings indicated that the nutritional knowledge levels of surgeons in the field of clinical nutrition was not satisfactory. To improve nutritional care in hospitals, effective nutrition training and ongoing education for all staff must be prioritized.