The type of nutrition education you can offer a patient with an eating disorder will primarily depend on the treat- ment setting. In a general hospital or medical unit, nutri- tion education usually takes a backseat to food/nutrient delivery interventions (see Chapter 8), because most eat- ing disorder patients only stay long enough to be stabi- lized and transferred to a specialty treatment facility or psychiatric unit. During a brief hospital stay, you may feel frustrated that a patient does not change his or her eating to follow your advice. Keep in mind that this is the nature of chronic illness, not a reflection of your effectiveness as a registered dietitian (RD). Nutrition education in a short-term setting may be
directed more toward caregivers and family members, answering questions and providing and/or recommend- ing reading materials to help them understand their loved one’s condition. If a patient is leaving your hospital for home, rather than an alternate treatment setting, provide a meal plan to the patient and/or caregiver that will be feasible in the home environment, along with a referral to an outpatient RD. In treatment settings where you have multiple oppor-
tunities over time to gradually introduce and advance nutrition education, the topics you choose will vary
