Nutritional support groups at a hospital setting. Size, composition, relationships and actions

The hospital Nutricional Support Group (NSG) represents the ultimate step in the evolution of the forms of provision of nutritional and feeding care to hospitalized patients. The NSG outdoes other preceeding forms for its harmony and cohesion among its members, the multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity, the dedication to the activity on a full time basis, and the capability to self-finance by means of the savings derived from the implementation of a nutritional policy consistent with the Good Practices of Feeding and Nutrition. It is to be expected that the inception and operation of a NSG in a hospital environment allows the realization of the benefits embedded into the Metabolic, Nutritional and Feeding Intervention Programs. Guidelines and recommendations for the definition of the size and composition of an hospital NSG are presented in this article, along with the responsabilities, functions and tasks to be assumed by its members, and a timetable for its implementation, always from the experiencies of the authors after conducting a NSG in a tertiary-care hospital in Havana (Cuba).