| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Increasing Our Opportunities by Looking Beyond Our BordersThe pace of technological change in recent years has left us living in a new world. Is this just a reality that impacts our governmental leaders as they strategize to powerfully position us within this new world, or does it also impact our daily professional activities as nutrition support professionals? Certainly we have the professional responsibility to provide the highest and most appropriate care to those right in front of us, but I believe the globalization of our knowledge-based economy provides a certain professional opportunity that should not be overlooked. Extending our impact and collaboration beyond the U.S.A. accurately represents our multinational membership and Clinical Nutrition Week (CNW) participants. Impressively, a full third of attendees at CNW'08 in Chicago were from countries other than the U.S.A.! Indeed, global engagement provides an important venue for us to share our expertise and extend our leadership. However, learning from and collaborating with our international colleagues also challenges us to contemplate our practices, refine our hypotheses, and garner perspective we simply can't achieve by talking only among ourselves. For many years, our joint programming efforts with our sister societies, including those in Europe, Latin America and Canada, have been greatly valued. While we are committed to continuing these efforts, I want to share the following three exciting new initiatives with you.
Members of either A.S.P.E.N. or ESPEN can now increase their access to cutting edge knowledge and resources by purchasing membership within the cooperating society at a reduced cost. Please call the national office for additional information if you would like to take advantage of this new membership opportunity.
PEN societies from across the globe are engaged in conversations to develop global nutrition support guidelines. We are early in the process and the conversation has appropriately focused on guideline methodology so far; however, this ongoing discussion has been approached with both enthusiasm and integrity, and promises to challenge us to thoroughly contemplate our internal approach to revising our A.S.P.E.N. guidelines.
Our colleagues within ESPEN have forged the way in collecting data identifying the nutrition status of hospitalized patients. This one-day cross sectional audit, including outcome evaluation, seeks to improve knowledge and awareness of malnutrition by using a simple screening test for nutrition risk. Their data set informs specific institutions and countries regarding the nutrition status of their population, broadly highlights issues relating to nutrition care, and provides a robust dataset across Europe that is simply unparalleled. I am delighted to announce the opportunity for institutions with the U.S.A. to participate in Nutrition Day 2009. Please watch for upcoming information regarding participation and read about the initiative at www.nutritionday.org. Imagine the dataset that could be ultimately obtained regarding the nutrition status of hospitalized patients around the globe, with the potential to correlate nutrition support practices and ideal means of implementation! It's an exciting prospect to contemplate and I thank our ESPEN colleagues for their leadership. Our international colleagues have graciously forged these collaborations with us. Through this process the barriers between our societies have dwindled, while strong friendships have emerged. As we have discussed in the past—only together can we identify and fully realize all the opportunities that exist for us to contribute in important and novel ways to the field of nutrition support. Let's not be limited, but let's commit to growing by extending those partnerships around the globe. As you contemplate this issue, I'd love to hear what's on your mind––please send your comments, suggestions, concerns, and thoughts to me at jpen{at}aspen.nutr.org.
Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Vol. 32, No. 5,
508 (2008)
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Top
A.S.P.E.N./ESPEN Joint...
International Guideline...