The National Inpatient Medication Chart (NIMC) is not designed for charting and recording administration of oral or enteral nutritional supplements. Its use for these purposes may result in
- confusion between nutritional supplements and medicines;
- potential for patients to receive medicines in error; and
- delays in provision and administration of nutrition to patients if the NIMC is sent to the pharmacy for dispensing.
Some health services have a separate clinical nutrition chart for ordering and recording the administration of nutritional supplements. An example of a clinical nutrition chart is kindly provided by the Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia.
Some health services use the NIMC for ordering and recording regular administration of nutritional supplements. Generally this is for patients who are unable to meet their nutritional requirements via oral diet, regular supplements and/or snacks.
Health services that choose to use the NIMC for ordering nutritional supplements should undertake a risk assessment and have a local policy or procedure on ordering and recording administration of nutritional supplements. The same requirements that apply to safer prescribing and administration of medicines on the NIMC should also apply to ordering and recording administration of nutritional products on the NIMC.
More information is available in the NIMC User Guide (see Appendix C) including recommendations for local policies on ordering and recording administration of nutritional supplements on the NIMC.