Diana Cárdenas

Access to nutritional care is frequently limited or denied to patients with disease-related malnutrition (DRM), to those with the inability to adequately feed themselves or to maintain their optimal healthy nutritional status which goes against the fundamental human right to food and health care. That is why the International Working Group for Patient's Right to nutritional care is committed to promote a human rights based approach (HRBA) in the field of clinical nutrition. Our group proposed… Voir plus

Access to nutritional care is frequently limited or denied to patients with disease-related malnutrition (DRM), to those with the inability to adequately feed themselves or to maintain their optimal healthy nutritional status which goes against the fundamental human right to food and health care. That is why the International Working Group for Patient's Right to nutritional care is committed to promote a human rights based approach (HRBA) in the field of clinical nutrition. Our group proposed to unite efforts by launching a global call to action against disease-related malnutrition through The International Declaration on the Human Right to Nutritional Care signed in the city of Vienna during the 44th ESPEN congress on September 5th 2022. The Vienna Declaration is a non-legally binding document that sets a shared vision and five principles for implementation of actions that would promote the access to nutritional care. Implementation programs of the Vienna Declaration should be promoted, based on international normative frameworks as The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Rome Declaration of the Second International Conference on Nutrition and the Working Plan of the Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025. In this paper, we present the general background of the Vienna Declaration, we set out an international normative framework for implementation programs, and shed a light on the progress made by some clinical nutrition societies. Through the Vienna Declaration, the global clinical nutrition network is highly motivated to appeal to public authorities, international governmental and non-governmental organizations and other scientific healthcare societies on the importance of optimal nutritional care for all patients. Voir moins

We have previously advocated that nutritional care be raised to the level of a human right, in close relationship to two well-recognized fundamental rights: the right to food and the right to health. This article 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 healthcare professionals (HCPs), namely how they can translate HRBA into routine clinical practice. Ethics and… Voir plus

We have previously advocated that nutritional care be raised to the level of a human right, in close relationship to two well-recognized fundamental rights: the right to food and the right to health. This article 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 healthcare 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, in which 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 an 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 building 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. Voir moins

Background: Although the therapeutic and economic efficacy of nutrition has been proven, optimal
nutritional care is still scarce among hospital and ambulatory patients. Thus malnutrition is still highly
prevalent. We identify as an underlying cause the absence of a common understanding of clinical
nutrition as a discipline. The aim of this paper is to establish the epistemological foundations of clinical
nutrition and to characterize it as a science.
Methods and results: From… Voir plus

Background: Although the therapeutic and economic efficacy of nutrition has been proven, optimal
nutritional care is still scarce among hospital and ambulatory patients. Thus malnutrition is still highly
prevalent. We identify as an underlying cause the absence of a common understanding of clinical
nutrition as a discipline. The aim of this paper is to establish the epistemological foundations of clinical
nutrition and to characterize it as a science.
Methods and results: From the standpoint of historical epistemology, we examine the historical conditions
that determine i) the main object of knowledge, ii) the nature and iii) domain of this science. Our
hypothesis is that clinical nutrition as a science was formed in the second half of the twentieth century as
an outcome of the integration of medicine and nutrition and underpinned by a primary transformation of
the “nutrient” concept. We identify malnutrition as the primary practical and research domain of
knowledge.
Conclusion: Clinical nutrition is an autonomous empirical science that can be characterized as a basic and
applied science. Its wide multi-disciplinarity guarantees its future. Voir moins