The College of Pharmacy at the University of Basrah organized a scientific symposium entitled (The prevalence of malnutrition among hospitalized patients in Basra Governorate)
The symposium included lectures by Assistant Lecturer Duaa Qasim Sobeih and Dr. Al-Hassan Al-Mujtaba Abdel-Wahed, in which they explained the importance of following up on clinical nutrition for patients hospitalized.
Disorders resulting from multiple causes were discussed, starting with a deficiency of precise and specific nutritional elements such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats, and a deficiency and excess of calories, any imbalance in which could cause famine, obesity, or other diseases.
She also explained the most important problems resulting from not following up on the matter, as malnutrition is a serious problem, especially among the elderly and people who suffer from chronic disorders, as patients with nutritional deficiencies are unable to fight infection, and the limits of their severe infections increase, and recovery takes longer and less time. Tendency to occur and increase the cost of treatment
The symposium also highlighted the importance of giving healthy food to hospitalized patients, how the clinical pharmacist can follow up on the matter to improve the patient’s health condition, and special methods for caring for people who have difficulty eating orally. Among these methods were how to prepare and use a feeding tube and intravenous nutrition and how to avoid their complications.
She gave several recommendations, the most important of which is monitoring and calculating calories and healthy food for hospitalized patients to improve the health conditions of hospitalized patients.