British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN)

BAPEN* is a Charitable Association that raises awareness of malnutrition and works to advance the nutritional care of patients and those at risk from malnutrition in the wider community.

BAPEN brings together the strengths of its Core Groups to raise awareness and understanding of malnutrition in all settings and provides education, advice and resources to advance the nutritional care of patients and those at risk from malnutrition in the wider community.

Vision:
Every individual receives safe, timely & appropriate nutritional care in every care setting, every day

Aims:
BAPEN is a Charitable Association that raises awareness of malnutrition and works to advance the nutritional care of patients and those at risk from malnutrition in the wider community.

We work with our members and key national partners to ensure that all individuals who are malnourished, or at risk of malnutrition, in any healthcare or social setting are identified early through nutrition screening using a validated tool such as BAPEN's "Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool" ('MUST') and receive appropriate, individualised treatment.

In order to achieve this, all health and social care professionals should be adequately trained to understand the importance of good nutritional care and have the skills appropriate to their role to implement this. Good nutrition and hydration care should be recognised as being a fundamental core component of providing safe and effective quality care in all care settings. One of our key challenges is making sure that the nutritional care individuals receive is seamless across the organisations who are involved in providing their care. Hence, the nutritional care delivered must meet an individual’s needs, irrespective of the care setting. This transfer of information for nutritional care between care homes, hospitals and community services is often poor and needs to be improved by the development of integrated nutrition pathways of care.