Understanding you and your needs

Costs and cost effectiveness

Although there’s very little evidence available to measure the cost effectiveness of oral nutritional supplements, they do show improved outcomes for malnourished patients.  A meta-analysis from NICE (Use of ONS versus Standard Care) shows the use of oral nutritional supplements in malnourished patients leads to statistically significant improvements in body weight along with reductions in complications and mortality.

Economic modelling of the use of oral nutritional supplements within the context of a screening programme undertaken in elderly hospital patients also suggests probable cost-effectiveness in terms of cost per QALY (the quality adjusted life year) is less than £20,000.  However, available randomised controlled trails provide too little information and are too underpowered to define these costs with confidence.

Budget concerns
Due to the high cost of malnutrition and increased pressure from key budget holders, inappropriate prescribing of oral nutritional supplements (with specific reference to the community setting) is being investigated.  With sufficient and effective dietary counselling and the correct use of ONS, the cost of malnutrition can be significantly reduced. 

Education & continuing professional development

Nestlé HealthCare Nutrition can support healthcare professionals to continue their education and improve their nutritional knowledge and skills.

Nestlé Nutrition Institute

The Nestlé Nutrition Institute fosters the concept of ‘Science for Better Nutrition’ because we are convinced that innovative, science-based nutrition can help enhance the quality of people’s lives all over the world.

Our role is:

• To contribute to proper nutrition information and education of healthcare providers
• To partner the medical and scientific community by providing enhanced access to the latest knowledge in nutritional sciences so healthcare for people of all ages can continually be improved
• To foster the communication of sound nutrition research by helping to connect the Scientific Community with Nestlé Research

Our commitment
For more than 60 years, Nestlé has contributed to the continuing nutrition education of health professionals.  The formation  of the Nestlé Nutrition Institute shows our long-standing commitment at a global level.  The Institute invites health professionals in the area of infant, clinical and performance nutrition to benefit from a constant exchange of knowledge and nutrition expertise – this communication initiative comprises workshops, publications, educational material and scholarships, as well as our new interactive website.

MasterClass Plus

MasterClass Plus is an educational CD-ROM programme for nurses, which is aimed at increasing their knowledge around Nutrition Support in the Community.

 

The course includes:

• An Introduction to Basic Nutrition and turns PREP hours into University Credits Awarded by Greenwich University. As part of Nurses Mandatory Continuing Education, each nurse must undertake 35 hours minimum every 3 years in an area relevant to their work plus Agenda for Change
• Each course has an associated number of validated credit points – the Nestlé MasterClass Plus has 30 credits at Level 3

Its benefits are: 

• MasterClass Plus is an innovative approach to professional lifelong learning and has a staged approach
• Each stage is a complete learning experience but combines with the others to help turn PREP hours into university credits