The Readiness Among Nutrition Support Hospital Staff for the Implementation of the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment

Priya Dewansingh,1 Jan LN Roodenburg,2 Dirk Gansefort,3,4 Ad A Hendrickx,1,5 Cees P van der Schans,1,6– 8,† Harriët Jager-Wittenaar1,9,10 1Research Group Healthy Ageing, Allied Health Care and Nursing, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands; 2Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 3Department of Prevention and Evaluation, Leibniz-Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany; 4Association for Health Promotion and Academy of Social Medicine Lower Saxony, Hannover, Germany; 5Center of Expertise for Lymphovascular Medicine, Nij Smellinghe Hospital, Drachten, the Netherlands; 6Department of Health Psychology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 7Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 8Department of Health Psychology Research, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 9Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Dietetics, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; 10Department of Physiotherapy, Human Physiology and Anatomy, Research Unit Experimental Anatomy, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium†Cees P. van der Schans passed away on May 7 2025Correspondence: Harriët Jager-Wittenaar, Research Group Healthy Ageing, Allied Health Care and Nursing, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Petrus Driessenstraat 3, Groningen, 9714 CA, the Netherlands, Email ha.jager@pl.hanze.nlPurpose: To timely tackle malnutrition in hospital patients, the implementation of a new malnutrition practice is needed. We aimed to determine the readiness of nutrition support hospital staff for implementing a new malnutrition practice, using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) instrument.Participants and Methods: A cross-sectional assessment of readiness among nutrition support hospital staff was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were scored across five dimensions of the community readiness model: Knowledge of efforts, Leadership, Community climate, Knowledge of the issue, and Resources for efforts. A general score and a dimension score (mean and standard deviation) were calculated. Scores could range from 1 (no awareness) to 9 (community ownership).Results: In total, 11 respondents, including physicians (n=2), dietitian (n=1), physiotherapists (n=3), speech therapists (n=2), nutritional assistants (n=2), and a manager (n=1) were interviewed. The general community readiness score was 4.0± 0.3, indicating the preplanning stage for the implementation of the PG-SGA. All five dimensions were in the preplanning range (3.5– 4.5). Resources was lowest (3.5 ± 0.9; range 3.0– 4.0), and Knowledge of efforts was highest (4.5 ± 1.9; range 2.0– 7.0); the scores of the remaining dimensions clustered around ~4.0. No dimension score exceeded the preplanning stage.Conclusion: Readiness to implement the PG-SGA was uniformly low (ie, at preplanning stage) across CRM dimensions, with resources most limited and awareness of existing efforts highest, yet still in the preplanning stage. Recommendations are directed to hospital leadership/clinical leaders and to interprofessional nutrition teams, with targeted training for all professionals involved in nutritional care to enable progression toward implementation.Keywords: community readiness, interprofessional collaboration, organizational change, PG-SGA, implementation