Improved detection of malnutrition by medical housestaff following focused-teaching intervention

We examined the influence of a brief, small group teaching intervention, which used current patients as examples, 01 the detection of malnutrition by medical housestaff. We re viewed 100 consecutive patient admissions before and 61 ad missions 1 month after the intervention for any mention o malnutrition in admitting, progress, or discharge notes and compared the result with the number of patients diagnosed as malnourished by dietitians. Before the intervention, in terns correctly identified 4 (14%) of 28 malnourished patients. After the intervention, the same interns correctly identified 15 (94%) of 16 malnourished patients (p=.0004) We conclude that this brief teaching intervention was effective in increasing the awareness and detection of malnutrition by interns.