Nutritional care is a human right: Translating principles to clinical practice

Area of Science:

• Medical Ethics
• Human Rights Law
• Clinical Nutrition

Background:

• Nutritional care is proposed as a fundamental human right, linked to existing rights to food and health.
• Healthcare professionals (HCPs) require guidance on integrating human rights into practice.
• The Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) offers a framework for ethical patient-centered care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the implications of recognizing nutritional care as a human right for healthcare practitioners.
• To explore how HCPs can translate the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) into clinical practice.
• To examine the role of human rights principles in guiding ethical decision-making in clinical nutrition.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and its principles.
• Examination of core human rights values: fairness, respect, equality, dignity, and autonomy (FREDA).
• Review of ethical considerations in clinical nutrition practice guidelines.

Main Results:

• The HRBA, grounded in FREDA principles, supports clinicians in decision-making.
• Integrating HRBA into clinical nutrition guidelines can enhance patient-centered care.
• Ethical values such as attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness, and solidarity are crucial for nutritional care.

Conclusions:

• Elevating nutritional care to a human right necessitates HCPs adopting the HRBA.
• The HRBA framework promotes optimal and timely nutritional interventions.
• Ethical practice in nutritional care is essential for upholding patient dignity and rights.