Introduction
Advocating for patients’ need for basic care and comfort is pivotal in nursing practice. Healthcare professionals should ensure that patients are not harmed in the healthcare setting as it is supposed to provide healing and comfort. To achieve it, nurses should ensure that nursing care is holistic and multidimensionally. Comfort is defined by patients’ quality of life and experiences. In the healthcare setting, unwarranted variability in care should be reduced because comfort is a vital aspect of patient-centered care (Wensley et al., 2020). From the NCLEX examination blueprint, a nurse is expected to demonstrate nutrition and oral hydration skills and knowledge. They are required to promote patients' physical health by providing basic care and comfort. They can thus provide assistive devices, nutrition, oral hygiene, rest, and sleep (Capilouto, n.d.). Therefore, this paper addresses basic care and comfort, focusing on nutrition and oral hydration as it promotes how the body works, thus influencing their health as described in the NCLEX nutrition and oral hydration category (Burke et al., n.d.). Importance Maintaining nutrition and oral hydration is a vital part of patients' wellbeing. It is important for patients, especially the elderly, to be well hydrated as poor has adverse effects. It can complicate and worsen their medical conditions. It can thus increase morbidities and mortalities. Older patients and children lack adequate nutrition during their stay in hospitals. They rarely achieve their recommended dietary allowances, and it, in turn, leads to poor recovery. Besides, their functional ability is also affected (Roigk, 2018). Therefore, maintaining good nutrition and hydration is vital in maintaining body functions and preventing the contraction of diseases. EVIDENCE BASED 3 If poor nutrition and oral dehydration are not resolved, the affected population will be weak as the body cells lack basic nutritional requirements for optimal functionality. Malnutrition and dehydration are major contributors to delayed recovery and other associated complications such as renal impairment in the elderly. Besides, poor recovery is associated with prolonged hospitalization, thus making the affected patients incur extra costs for medical attention. The prolonged hospitalization also increases patients' chances of contracting nosocomial infections (Toh et al., 2017). If malnutrition and dehydration are unresolved, disease burden will increase, and patients' recovery will be hindered. The patient will be hospitalized for longer periods than expected. Therefore, it will be a burden to the healthcare system to take care of patients whose recovery has been delayed; it may also lead to exhaustion of resources made to take care of other patients and is likely to cause a deficit in the resources allocated to the healthcare system. Moreover, it causes nurse burnout as nurses are tasked with taking care of many patients. Healthcare Disparities, Inequalities, and Interventions If nutrition and hydration issues of patients are unresolved, they have adverse health impacts on the elderly. They contribute to medical complications, prolonged hospitalization, and poor quality of life. Malnutrition depletes fats and muscle mass, thus affecting its functionality and changes in body composition. Inadequate nutrition also affects the integrity of the patient's gastrointestinal tract. The patients’ large intestines lose their ability to absorb water and salts (Ruiz et al., 2019). Therefore, many ions and fluids are secreted into the bowel resulting in diarrhea. In return, it increases mortality rates for the affected patients. Potential disparities are experienced in addressing malnutrition and dehydration. These disparities are diet-related and influence the availability of adequate nutrition to the affected EVIDENCE BASED 4 population. Nutritional disparities associated with socioeconomic factors are alarming. Dietary behaviors and differences in dietary intake have potentially contributed to malnutrition and poor oral hydration in diverse populations (Perez-Escamilla et al., 2018). Besides, lack of knowledge on nutrition has also contributed to nutritional disparities as the elderly may lack proper feeding practices. Consequently, it leads to malnutrition and poor health that adversely affects their quality of life. Moreover, climate change has also been a key factor in influencing nutritious food and water availability. Some regions have plenty of food while others lack sufficient food. To prevent these disparities from potentially causing malnutrition and dehydration, educate the patients' caretakers on the importance of hydration and proper nutrition for their elderly relatives. Therefore, pamphlets providing educational resources to the affected population would be essential in bypassing the adverse effects of poor nutrition and lack of ora
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