The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for us all, and dietitians have been working hard on the ground as an integral part of the multi-disciplinary team, to support the recovery of COVID-19 patients.
Lots of you have been in touch to express interest in collecting data demonstrating the effectiveness of a dietitian in supporting COVID-19 treatment. We are excited to announce that we have been able to work with members to pull together a data set for collection.
We hope to answer two research questions following the analysis of the data:
- “Can dietitians meet nutritional requirements and minimise weight loss in COVID-19 patients in the hospital setting?”
- “What are the nutritional implications seen by dietitians, as a consequence of COVID-19 in the community setting?”
COVID-19 will be with us for some time to come. The first wave really showed the value a dietitian can bring to supporting this patient group during an acute hospital admission, as well as afterwards when they need rehabilitation in the community.
We know this, and now we want to demonstrate it with some hard data and research.
The data you submit will be non-patient, and non-trust/board or hospital identifiable. For this reason, obtaining trust or board approval should be quite simple.
Usually your research and development team will want to know why the data is being collected and to check no identifiable data will be distributed outside of the trust. A request to share data can be gained via a simple email, or some trusts/boards will require a specific form to be filled out.
If you aren’t sure of the process in your workplace, you should speak with your research and development team.
Sadly, another wave of COVID-19 is anticipated this year, possibly with more to follow that. We want to be ready this time, to collect robust evidence that will support the efforts to get more people through this disease alive and to rehabilitate those who survive to better outcomes.
The more data we collect, the more valuable this data collection will be. So, please join us and submit your data to allow us to demonstrate what dietitians do!
