Nutrition

Clinical Nutrition &
Metabolic Support

WestNet Medical • Module 03 • Food-First Metabolic Care

WestNet Unified Health Platform • WestNet Catalog 731985456581 • ISBN 978-0-XXXXX-XXX-X (Pending)
CE Accreditation Path: ANCC • ACCME • CARNA
Last updated: June 2026

Core Learning Objective

Learners will screen for malnutrition (MUST / NRS-2002), identify and safely manage refeeding syndrome using NICE criteria, choose between enteral and parenteral routes, meet protein and energy needs for healing — and, above all, treat the dinner plate as the first and most powerful clinical lever, not an afterthought to the drug chart.

Published By

WestNet Medical Publications
A division of WestNet North America Inc.
medical.westnet.ca

Co-Published With

WestNet Humanitarian Services (WHS)
UN Supplier • Registered NGO
www.westnet.ngo

WestNet Catalog (UPC-A): 7 31985 45658 1
ISBN 978-0-XXXXX-XXX-X (Pending) • First Edition

7 31985 45658 1

WestNet Medical Publications

Continuing Education Information

Field	Detail
Module	03 of 12 — Nutrition
Contact Hours	3.0 (Pending ANCC / ACCME / CARNA approval)
Target Audience	RNs, LPNs, RPNs, Registered Dietitians, Physicians, NPs, PAs, Pharmacists, Wound & Stoma Nurses, Allied Health
Publication	WestNet Medical Publications • Catalog 731985456581 • ISBN Pending
Disclosure	Educational content. Does not replace facility policy, dietitian or physician orders, or jurisdictional scope-of-practice requirements.

Screen for malnutrition risk at admission using validated tools (MUST and NRS-2002)
Identify NICE high-risk criteria for refeeding syndrome and initiate safe, slow refeeding
Calculate protein and energy requirements for maintenance, repletion, and wound healing
Select the appropriate feeding route — oral-first, then enteral, then parenteral — with the gut-first principle
Recognize the ultra-processed Western diet as an upstream driver of the chronic-disease epidemic
Use nutrition as a structured deprescribing and prevention tool alongside the medical team
Document nutrition observations and goals in human-centered, function-focused language

Program Preface

§ 01

This module was developed from clinical workflow analysis across North American hospitals, long-term care, and community clinics — not from textbook theory alone. WestNet HealthOS was built because nutrition, the oldest medicine we have, sits at the very bottom of the modern care pathway: charted last, funded least, and addressed only after the drugs have failed.

Module 03 is not anti-medicine. It is pro-sequence — the simple clinical discipline of asking what the patient is eating before reaching for the next prescription. A diuretic does not fix a sodium-soaked diet. A statin does not undo a daily flood of ultra-processed food. Both have their place; neither belongs first when the plate has never been examined.

WestNet Position

Nutrition is not “supportive care” bolted onto real treatment. For a large share of chronic disease it is the treatment — the upstream lever the rest of the chart is trying, and often failing, to compensate for. This module teaches clinicians to assess the plate first and label second.

Food as Medicine — and the Plate We Stopped Looking At

§ 02

Every cell the body repairs, every immune response it mounts, every wound it closes is built from what arrived on the plate. Yet on a busy ward the nutrition question is frequently the last one asked, if it is asked at all. The result is a system that is superb at naming and medicating the consequences of a poor diet, and strangely silent about the diet itself.

Clinical Reality

Up to one in three patients arrives at hospital already malnourished, and many decline further during the stay. Malnutrition quietly lengthens admissions, slows wound healing, raises infection and readmission rates — and is one of the most under-screened, most reversible problems on the ward.

A Provision, Not Merely a Pleasure

Across the world’s great traditions, food is framed as a trust to be honoured, not abused: “Eat of the good things We have provided” (Qur’an 2:172) and “whether you eat or drink… do it all for the good” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The point is clinical as much as moral: the body was designed to run on real, whole provision. A care plan that ignores the plate is ignoring the patient’s most basic medicine. Assess what nourishes — never reduce a person to a lab value.

◆ Verified clinical access

MODULE 03 — Crisis Assessment & Risk

The full module is reserved for verified clinical staff. Enroll once — an administrator approves your account, then every module is yours to read.

Verify your credentials

Verified access includes

Every WestNet Medical CE module — the full clinical text, not a preview
The interactive bedside tools (Trāuma Index, Brøset, akathisia checks)
A certificate of completion for your professional record
Free for verified clinicians — no payment, ever