2.1.2 What is nutritional support?

Dietary counselling, modification of conventional food, and oral nutritional supplements (ONS) are all considered as strategies for improving nutritional intake and can be delivered by mouth.

When patients are unable to consume sufficient nutrition via the oral route, delivery of nutrients directly into the gut via enteral tube feeding (ETF) may be required.

In cases when patients require complete bowel rest or have a non-functional, inaccessible or perforated gastrointestinal tract and cannot be fed adequately and/or safely via the oral/ enteral route, parenteral nutrition (PN), where nutrients are delivered intravenously, will be needed.

Depending on a patient’s nutritional status, underlying medical condition and the aim of nutritional support, a feeding method may be used alone or in combination with one or more other forms of nutritional support and this may differ at a specific point in time or during the course of a patient’s healthcare journey.

Figure 2.1

The spectrum of nutritional support.The strategies shown within the orange text box are included in the definition of ‘medical nutrition’ for the purposes of this dossier (*some definitions of enteral nutrition include ONSⁱ)

ⁱThe term enteral tube feeding (ETF) is used in this document (see Definition of terms). In instances where original sources have used enteral nutrition to include ONS this is clarified in the text.