The Nutrition Care Process in a Cardiac Rehabilitation Program

The Nutrition Care Process (NCP) involves four steps: assessment, diagnosis, intervention, monitoring/evaluation. It was introduced by the American Dietetic Association in 2003 to standardize how registered dietitians made decisions addressing nutrition related problems. Use of the NCP has been limited to care of individuals, although it is said to be applicable to groups. Nutritional problems fall into three categories: intake, clinical (encompassing labwork, body composition), and behavioral (addresses knowledge, food access, beliefs). We applied steps one and two of the NCP to participants of the Heart Plus Fitness Cardiac Rehabilitation group on the MSU campus. We assessed each subject for nutritional problems and made appropriate diagnoses. Assessment of the subjects included a brief interview for diet, medical history and attitudes and beliefs toward nutrition. Subjects completed the MEDFICTS, a food frequency questionnaire, and anthropometric data (height, weight, waist circumference) was recorded. The patient\u27s recent lipid profile and fasting blood glucose were also reviewed. We then used the data to formulate nutrition diagnoses. We hypothesized that from assessments made, three to four nutrition diagnoses will predominate, indicating the most common nutrition problems of the group. From there, classes were developed to address these nutrition difficulties