Describing Community-Based Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in the Nutritional Care of Older Adults: Results of a UK Survey.

Purpose: To ascertain current nutritional knowledge and training needs of community-based nurses caring for older adults in the United Kingdom.

Method: A descriptive cross-sectional, anonymized, online survey of nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to older adults' nutrition was developed. Community-based nurses working with older adults in the United Kingdom were recruited via social media and convenience sampling.

Results: Responses were received from 194 community-based nurses. Nutritional care was seen as a multidisciplinary responsibility by 62% of participants. Most undertook nutrition screening (93%), were confident in providing nutritional advice (83%), and ease of identifying those in need (88%) was high. However, some aspects of nutritional knowledge were less complete, including recommended daily intakes of protein (60% unsure) and fiber (52% unsure).

Conclusion: High confidence in delivering nutritional advice contrasted with uncertainty around some aspects of nutritional knowledge, suggesting opportunities to improve training on the nutritional needs of older adults. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, xx(xx), xx-xx.].