Nutritional support team intervention in surgical ICUs and its effect on nutrition delivery and quality in critically ill patients

•NST positively impacts the quality of care and the NS provided to critically ill surgical patients.•Education and protocol development are keystones of NST implementation.•More studies regarding NST implementation and long-term outcomes are needed for further evidence. Critically ill surgical patients pose one of the greatest challenges in achieving nutritional goals. Several published papers have demonstrated clear benefits when nutrition support (NS) is managed by a multidisciplinary nutrition support team (NST). We hypothesized that implementing a NST in a surgical intensive care unit (ICU) would increase the number of patients achieving their nutritional goals. Multicenter “BEFORE & AFTER” study. In the BEFORE phase, an audit of the previous state of NS was conducted in three ICUs without a NST. Implementation of a NST and protocol. In the AFTER phase, a new audit of NS was conducted. Continuous variables (presented as mean ± SD or median Q1–Q3) were tested using the t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical variables (presented as frequencies and percentages) were assessed using the chi-square test. A binomial logistic regression model was performed, with independent variables introduced using a stepwise forward method. A difference was considered to be significant with a two-sided P-value