The West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) has called for stronger integration of clinical nutrition into Nigeria’s healthcare system, stressing that nutrition care must extend beyond communities to hospitals and other healthcare settings.
President and Founder of WASPEN, Dr. Teresa Isichei Pounds, made the call at a press conference ahead of the 2026 Malnutrition Awareness Week, being organised in collaboration with the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN).
The 2026 campaign is themed “Nutrition is a Team Effort.”
Dr. Pounds commended the Federal Government for strengthening Nigeria’s national nutrition agenda through initiatives including the Nutrition 774 Initiative, the development of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035, increased attention to sustainable nutrition financing, and renewed efforts to address micronutrient deficiencies and the critical first 1,000 days of life.
She, however, said greater attention must now be given to people who are already ill and receiving treatment in hospitals.
According to her, malnutrition is not limited to food insecurity, maternal nutrition, child nutrition, breastfeeding and micronutrient deficiencies, but can also occur within healthcare facilities.
She explained that some patients arrive at hospitals already malnourished, while others become nutritionally depleted during illness or develop increased nutritional requirements due to surgery, infection, cancer, trauma or critical illness.
“Nutrition can sometimes remain secondary to the condition that brought the patient to the hospital. We believe it should not,” she said.
The WASPEN president stressed that nutrition screening, assessment, intervention and monitoring should form part of routine clinical management, particularly for patients at nutritional risk.
She called for stronger multidisciplinary nutrition care structures in healthcare facilities, improved nutrition competencies among healthcare professionals, and appropriate systems and resources for patients requiring enteral or parenteral nutrition.
Dr. Pounds also emphasised the need for collaboration among physicians, nurses, dietitians and nutritionists, pharmacists, laboratory professionals, community health workers and other healthcare professionals.
She noted that while professionals have different responsibilities, they must work together around the needs of the patient.
“Teamwork does not mean that everyone performs the same function. It means that each professional brings their expertise to the same patient, with the same goal: better outcomes and better quality of care,” she said.
She disclosed that WASPEN had continued to promote nutrition across the continuum of care, citing the society’s 5th Clinical Nutrition Conference in Asaba, where a community outreach was also conducted in Ogwa Ukwu and Ahaba.
According to her, the outreach reinforced the need to link community nutrition with hospital-based nutrition care, noting that patients move between the community and healthcare facilities and therefore require a connected nutrition system.
As part of this year’s Malnutrition Awareness Week, WASPEN will organise two webinars to deepen discussions on nutrition care and multidisciplinary collaboration.
The first webinar, “Nutrition Care is a Team Effort: Defining Roles, Building Partnerships, Improving Outcomes,” will focus on professional roles, collaboration, partnerships and the policy environment for strengthening nutrition care.
The second, “From Screening to Recovery: The Multidisciplinary Nutrition Care Pathway in Practice,” will examine how nutrition care can progress from screening and assessment to intervention, monitoring and recovery.
Dr. Pounds urged government, healthcare institutions, professional organisations, academia, development partners and communities to work together in addressing malnutrition.
She said Nigeria’s nutrition agenda must embrace the full continuum of care, from prevention and community interventions to hospital-based treatment and post-discharge support.
“Malnutrition is too complex for one profession to solve. It is too important for one sector to own, and it is too serious for us to address only when it becomes severe,” she said.
She reaffirmed WASPEN’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to ensure that nutrition receives adequate attention both within and outside healthcare facilities.
“From the community to the hospital, from prevention to treatment, and from screening to recovery, nutrition must remain part of the care we provide,” she added.
