The Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Unit of the Bellvitge University Hospital has participated very actively in the development of the Consensus on the nomenclature of hospital diets in Catalonia, a document that unifies the terminology used so far in hospitals and that will allow patients to professionals share hot springs and concepts regardless of their workplace.
The Consensus has been promoted by the College of Nutritionist Dietitians of Catalonia (CODINUCAT) through the Clinical Nutrition Working Group (GTNC), of which Imma Jiménez, one of the HUB's dietitians-nutritionists, is a member. The document responds to one of the milestones considered capital by professionals in this field for years: having a standardized methodological tool to carry out their work plans.
The document has been reviewed by Anna Pibernat, from the Josep Trueta University Hospital of Girona, and Cocó Vilarasau, former coordinator of the Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Unit of the HUB until her retirement and who has been working actively for years to reach a consensus terminological.
In fact, one of the main starting points of the Consensus has been the Bellvitge Hospital Diet Manual, pioneered and applied in the center by a team headed by Vilarasau now 15 years ago. Having a homogeneous terminology will help to solve problems such as, for example, that the same diet has different names depending on the center where it is applied or even that the same nomenclature refers to diets that have different compositions or indications. In addition, they wanted to avoid naming the diet after the disease to be treated.
To prepare the Consensus, the working group of the College of Dietitians-Nutritionists of Catalonia has carried out an investigation of etymological information on words, a bibliographic investigation of the different uses of the nomenclatures and an exhaustive analysis of the information. Within the document, diets are classified into three large groups: basic, therapeutic and progressive. Another feature of the document is the clarification made about the types of textures that exist and the inclusion of an algorithm to know when to advise one or the other depending on the case. This algorithm was the result of collaboration for the Consensus Document for the community approach to malnutrition related to chronic disease in people with clinical complexity, of the Department of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
The objective of the creation of the document is that it be dynamic and that it can be expanded to incorporate dietetics and pediatric clinical nutrition, incorporate diets that are not included in the current document and adapt to the evolution of the profession.