UWL Has Led On Two Projects To Ensure That Older People In Care Homes Stay Hydrated
17 – 23 March is Nutrition and Hydration Week, focusing on the value of food and drink in maintaining health and wellbeing in health and social care.
Being a patient or a resident in a health or social care setting can often limit a person’s ability and autonomy to drink and eat what they want as and when they want. Under-hydration and malnutrition contribute to delirium, falls, constipation, and urinary and respiratory tract infections, often leading to admission to hospital. Proper nutrition and hydration are key for supporting independence and quality of life for older people in long term care settings.
The Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London (UWL) has led on two National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded projects that focus on ensuring that older people in care homes are helped to eat and drink.
The I-Hydrate Project found that care home residents do not always receive or consume enough fluids to meet normal daily requirements. In collaboration with two care homes, researchers demonstrated that giving residents a larger choice of drinks and better equipment can increase fluid intake and that introducing protected drinks times and giving staff specific hydration tasks can help improve resident hydration. The team has produced a suite of resources that show that making just a few small changes can make all the difference to the amount of fluids residents consume. They are free to download and watch here The I-Hydrate Project.
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is common in older people living in care homes and is often difficult to recognise because signs and symptoms, such as changes in behaviour, may look like other conditions such as dementia. This can lead to antibiotics being prescribed unnecessarily, which lessens their effectiveness. It can also result in antibiotics not being given when needed.
The StOP UTI Project provides practical examples and recommendations relevant to care home staff, care home managers, researchers, educators, carers and relatives to improve the recognition and prevention of urinary tract infection in older people’s long-term care.
The project reviewed the evidence for strategies to prevent and recognise UTI. It used different types of evidence from research, improvement projects and information gathered from stakeholders to help understand how interventions to prevent and recognise UTI can be delivered effectively by staff working in care homes. They found that for hydration to be recognised as a care priority for all residents, care routines need to include sufficient opportunities for drinking and enable care staff to devote the necessary time and resources to support residents to consume enough fluid every day.
The project identified the importance of knowing how much fluid a resident has consumed to ensure that poor fluid intake does not go unnoticed and can be addressed by care staff. A Policy Brief and Project Summary of the research findings are available to download.
