Nursing Care Plan for Malnutrition
Also searched as: undernutrition
🎓 Educational example. Adapt to your patient and have your instructor review it. Not medical advice.
Inadequate intake or absorption of nutrients relative to the body's metabolic needs, leading to unintended weight loss, muscle wasting, and impaired healing. Nursing care focuses on identifying contributing factors, restoring adequate intake, and tracking nutritional status over time.
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Assessment
- Subjective: poor appetite, early fullness, trouble chewing or swallowing, unintentional weight loss
- Objective: low BMI or documented weight loss over time, temporal or muscle wasting, low albumin/prealbumin, slow wound healing, reduced grip strength
Nursing diagnoses
As evidenced by: unintended weight loss, low albumin, visible muscle wasting
Risk factors: thin fragile skin, minimal subcutaneous tissue, poor healing history
Goals / expected outcomes
- The patient will consume at least 75% of served meals or meet the ordered calorie/protein target during the care period.
- The patient's weight will stabilize or trend upward, with albumin/prealbumin moving toward normal, by the next scheduled measurement.
Nursing interventions & rationale
| Intervention | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Complete a nutritional screening and compare current intake against estimated calorie and protein needs. | Identifies the degree of the deficit so the nutrition plan can be individualized rather than generic. |
| Collaborate with the dietitian to provide a high-protein, high-calorie diet or oral supplements as ordered. | Meeting calorie and protein targets supports tissue repair and slows further wasting. |
| Track weight trends, intake and output, and relevant labs such as albumin, prealbumin, and electrolytes. | Objective trends confirm whether the plan is working and flag refeeding risk in severely depleted patients. |
| Assist with feeding as needed and address barriers such as poor dentition, nausea, or swallowing difficulty. | Removing physical obstacles to eating increases the amount the patient actually consumes. |
Evaluation
- Intake meets the calorie/protein target
- Weight is stable or trending up
- Nutrition labs trend toward normal
Sources & further reading
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Malnutrition care plan: FAQ
What is the nursing diagnosis for Malnutrition?
Common nursing diagnoses include: Imbalanced nutrition, less than body requirements, related to inadequate intake or increased metabolic demand; Risk for impaired skin integrity related to reduced nutritional reserve. Choose the one your patient's assessment data supports.
What are nursing interventions for Malnutrition?
Key interventions: Complete a nutritional screening and compare current intake against estimated calorie and protein needs.; Collaborate with the dietitian to provide a high-protein, high-calorie diet or oral supplements as ordered.; Track weight trends, intake and output, and relevant labs such as albumin, prealbumin, and electrolytes., each paired with a rationale.
Can I use this care plan for my assignment?
Use it as a study example and starting draft. Always adapt it to your specific patient and have it reviewed by your instructor. This is an educational tool, not medical advice.
For nursing education only, NOT medical advice and not a clinical decision-making tool. Nothing here should be used to assess, diagnose, or treat any real patient. Care plans and answers are unverified study drafts to review with your instructor or a licensed clinician and adapt to the individual patient and your institution’s protocols before any use.
Last reviewed 2026-07. Educational content based on standard nursing practice; not medical advice and not affiliated with NANDA-I/NIC/NOC. Always follow your institution's protocols and your instructor's guidance.