Nutrition
Nutrition - Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
| Good nutrition plays an important role for patients undergoing cancer treatment. For many people undergoing treatment, side effects can greatly affect their ability and desire to eat. Our departments focus is on assessing patients' nutritional needs before, during and after treatment and developing strategies to reduce nutrition-related side effects and enhance patient quality of life. | ||||||||
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| What we do: patient care | ||||||||
| Inpatients and ambulatory patients are seen by our dietitians at East Melbourne and at Peter Mac satellite sites including Moorabbin and Box Hill. In addition, one of our key roles is managing and monitoring a large number of patients that require tube feeding whilst living at home on our Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) program. Each of our dietitians have areas of specialty primarily defined by cancer types including Head & Neck, Upper & Lower Gastrointestinal, Skin, Haematology, Lung, Sarcoma, Urology, Gynaecology and Breast cancers or by service specialities such as PEG clinic and ICU. | ||||||||
| Clinical research and innovation | ||||||||
| We are committed to delivering clinical services that are evidenced-based and services that generate the best personalised cancer care outcomes. We participate in quality research in nutrition and oncology, service development and innovations that aim for excellence in personalised clinical care. Current research projects include: Investigating Practices Related to Malnutrition in Victorian Cancer Services - We are the lead site providing project management for this Victorian Department of Health funded project which aims to assess the prevalence of cancer malnutrition across 15 Health Services across Victoria. This project will also investigate nutrition practices, inform appropriate interventions and policies and enhance the availability of services and information for patients and healthcare professionals in relation to cancer malnutrition. The Malnutrition Inpatient Strategy – This strategy is a malnutrition screening, assessment and treatment program that is embedded into inpatient care and aims to ensure appropriate nutrition care for patients at Peter Mac. This new model of care was implemented in 2010 and the work was awarded a Silver Award for Excellence in Health Outcomes in the 2011 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards. Novel Nutrition Program in the Chemotherapy Day Unit - Based on the Malnutrition Inpatient Strategy, a new nutrition program has been implemented in our Chemotherapy Day Unit in 2012. This program ensures best practice care to our patients receiving chemotherapy including malnutrition screening, assessment and treatment and greater access and variety of foods and fluids to patients on the day of chemotherapy. Evidence based care pathways- These have been developed for many tumour streams to ensure best practice nutritional management and timely nutritional care. Completed care pathways include head and neck, haematology, sarcoma, lung and upper-gastrointestinal tumour streams. Lower-gastrointestinal and surgical head and neck care pathways are currently under development. | ||||||||
| Education and teaching | ||||||||
| We play an important role in educating dietitians, students and other health professionals regarding evidence-based nutritional management of oncology patients. The department is involved in many education and teaching activities including: • Supervision and training for clinical dietetic students and research/honours students from Victorian accredited dietetic courses • Student Nutrition Oncology Education Programs to Victorian accredited dietetic courses • A state-wide education role across Victoria in oncology nutrition specifically in the Loddon-Mallee and Gippsland Integrated Cancer Service areas • Annual/biennial professional development event for oncology dietitians ‘Talking about the C word’ | ||||||||
| Food services | ||||||||
| Dietitians work actively with Food Services to develop meal plans that are tailored to patient preferences and nutritional requirements. We’re highly committed to the provision of appetising, high-quality and nutritionally balanced meals that meet the clinical and cultural needs of patients at Peter Mac. For further information on our Food Services Department: click here >> | ||||||||
| Activities and events | ||||||||
| Now in its 13th year, the Nutrition Department has organised a variety of ‘Guest Chef’ functions at Peter Mac. The aim of these functions is to increase the pleasure of food for patients and help put the fun back into eating. Guest Chef 2012 featured well known MasterChef judge, chef and owner of several of Melbourne’s top restaurants, George Calombaris, who treated our patients to a nourishing meal and our 2011 function featured Frank Camorra of the award-winning Melbourne restaurant MoVida. Our annual Christmas afternoon tea function is supplied by the Park Hyatt. | ||||||||
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| Contact us | ||||||||
| For referrals, appointments and queries please contact the Nutrition Department on (03) 9656 1002. Department hours: Monday to Friday 8.30am - 5.00pm After hours: On-call dietitian service weekends and public holidays (8.30am-5.30pm) | ||||||||
| Nutrition Department Staff | ||||||||
| Head of Nutrition: Jenelle Loeliger | ||||||||
| Secretary: Esther Ee | ||||||||
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| Nutrition resources: for health professionals | ||||||||
| Oncology Resource Manual The Nutrition Department has published an educational manual ‘Oncology nutrition: the essential resource for the nutritional management of cancer’, targeted at dietitians. This manual can be purchased from the Nutrition Department through the contact details provided above. | ||||||||
| Dietitians Association of Australia A broad range of nutrition resources are available for dietitians, health professionals and the public at: http://daa.asn.au | ||||||||
| Nutrition Education Materials Online (NEMO) A range of nutritional resources on oncology are available: http://www.health.qld.gov.au/nutrition/nemo_oncol.asp | ||||||||
| Nutrition resources: for patients | ||||||||
| The Nutrition Department has produced the following general information on eating well with cancer: | ||||||||
| Eating well: fact sheet >> | ||||||||
| The Cancer Council Victoria www.cancervic.org.au | ||||||||
| This website provides educational material regarding Nutrition & Cancer for health professionals, people with cancer and their families and friends. | ||||||||
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| Find a dietitian | ||||||||
| Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) www.daa.asn.au | ||||||||
| Patients can see an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) in a private setting through a private practice. | ||||||||
| White Pages and Yellow Pages | ||||||||
| Community Dietitian - Patients can gain access to dietitians in community health services/centres in their local area. A list of community health services and their locations can be found under ‘C’ for ‘Community Health Services’ in the White Pages and Yellow Pages. Sometimes a GP referral letter may be required. Dietitians in these healthcare facilities may offer individual appointments and/or group education sessions. Private Dietitian - Patients can also access a private dietitian searching ‘dietitian’ which will include a list of private practices/clinics. |
