Nutritional care is a human right: Translating principles to clinical practice

Diana Cárdenas; Maria Isabel Toulson Davisson Correia; Gil Hardy; Juan B Ochoa; Albert Barrocas; Régis Hankard; Isabelle Hannequart; Stéphane Schneider; Charles Bermúdez; Karin Papapietro; Teresa Pounds; Cristina Cuerda; Winai Ungpinitpong; Anna-Lena du Toit; Rocco Barazzoni

doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2022.03.021

Nutritional care is a human right: Translating principles to clinical practice

Clin Nutr. 2022 Jul;41(7):1613-1618. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.03.021. Epub 2022 Apr 6.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, Research Institute on Nutrition, Genetics and Metabolism, El Bosque University, Bogotá, Colombia. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Surgical Department, Medical School, Universidade Federal de Medicina, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Ipanema Research Trust, Auckland, New Zealand. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ Critical Care Medicine, Hunterdon Medical Center, New Jersey, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ Tulane School of Medicine New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ Nutrition Mobile Unit, CHU Tours, Université de Tours, European Institute for History and Culture of Food, University of Tours, France. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ Université de Tours, Tours, France. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁸ Nutrition Support Unit, Gastroenterology and Nutrition Department, Archet University Hospital, Nice, France. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁹ Surgery and Nutrition Department, Clínica La Colina and Clínica Del Country, Bogota, Colombia. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁰ Nutrition Unit, Hospital Clínico de La Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹¹ Department of Pharmacy, Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹² Nutrition Unit, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹³ Surgery Department, Surin Hospital, Thailand. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁴ Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁵ Department of Medical, Technological and Translational Sciences, University of Trieste, Ospedale di Cattinara, Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 35637040
DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.03.021

Abstract

We have previously advocated that nutritional care be raised to the level of a human right in a close relationship to two well recognized fundamental rights: the right to food and the right to health. This paper aims to analyze the implication of nutritional care as a human right for healthcare practitioners. We will focus on the impact of the Human Rights Basic Approach (HRBA) on health care professionals (HCPs), namely how they can translate HRBA into routine clinical practice. Ethics and human rights are guiding values for clinical nutrition practitioners. Together they ensure a patient-centered approach, where the needs and rights of the patients are of the most significant importance. Human rights are based on the powerful idea of equal dignity for all people while expressing a set of core values, including fairness, respect, equality, dignity, and autonomy (FREDA). Through the analysis of FREDA principles, we have provided the elements to understand human rights and how a HRBA can support clinicians in the decision-making process. Clinical practice guidelines in clinical nutrition should incorporate disease-specific ethical issues and the HRBA. The HRBA should contribute to build conditions for HCPs to provide optimal and timely nutritional care. Nutritional care must be exercised by HCPs with due respect for several fundamental ethical values: attentiveness, responsibility competence, responsiveness, and solidarity.

Keywords: Dignity; Ethics; Human rights; Nutrition; Values.

MeSH terms

Human Rights*
Humans