Acquiring the Skills to Perform a Nutrition-focused Physical ExamAs a health care professional what am I looking for in doing a nutrition-focused physical exam?
Both signs (objective, physical findings, lesions seen that have/often have nutritional under pinnings) and symptoms (subjective, relayed by the client) of nutritional concern are identified in this phase of the nutrition assessment process. Training (link) is necessary in this area of data collection as are skills needed all areas of data collection. Skills in this area include training the eye for actual nutrient-based lesions or signs that indicate a possible nutritional deficiency. As in all learned skills aimed at detection, we must first know what we are looking for. Just what are nutrition-based lesions or signs of possible nutritional deficiency?
Signs of possible nutritional deficiency are those conditions that have been linked to nutritional deficit by biochemical or other data in large populations. They can be categorized by likeliness to be linked to nutritional deficiencies from very likely to likely to possibly.
Let’s take a look at where we would “look” for these signs. I like to think of a nutritional physical exam as a top to bottom look at the client backed by training. I say top to bottom because I usually start with the head or more specifically the mouth, (while my gloves are clean) eyes, skin, and hair and work down to the clients feet and toes. How can the nutrition-focused physical exam be divided into learnable/viewable nutrition-focused physical exam findings?
In order to make this topic more “digestible” we will start with the head to toe approach and begin with the head. One needs to learn key terms, in other words, learn the language of nutrient-based lesions. Next comes learning to recognize the lesions you have learned the names of. Then, recording those findings and incorporating all the client’s nutrition problems into nutrition diagnoses comes next.
For the sake of skills acquisition in performing a nutrition-focused physical exam, I will first focus on nutrient-based lesions of these areas of the Head and Neck: mouth and throat, tongue, eyes, other (facial skin) and hair. The progression will then be to the skin and nails of the extremities. See web site sections that expand upon each area.
The Head & Neck Exam, Skin Exam, Musculoskeletal Exam, Neurological Exam, Gastrointestinal Exam, and Abnormalities sections of the web site will give you information on examination of specific parts of the body. The first two exams will be finished first with the others completed in the order they are listed.
To obtain the skills of performing a nutrition-based physical exam correctly and in a timely manner, this web site will offer resources that will increase your learning curve. Eventually a Guidebook as well as videos and DVDs will be available. Workshops can be sponsored by your local, district or state dietetic associations and be listed on our website for increased attendance. Contact information can be found on the Home page or go to this (link).
Tags: General Exam Information Skills Acquisition Acquiring the Skills to Perform a Nutrition-focused Physical Exam lesion language nutient-based lesion idenfication workshops videos DVDs
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