Managing Metabolic Complications of Parenteral Nutrition

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Glossary

Social workers play an instrumental role in assisting patients and families with their health and emotional needs during and following many kinds of treatments, including those receiving total parenteral nutrition. Social work services should be extended to all patients and their families in order to provide the best possible outcome to their respective treatments. Depending on the institution, a social worker should be assigned to each family from the time of initial diagnosis. And as the same worker follows the family through all phases of treatment, both inpatient and outpatient, the social worker is the one member of the team responsible for attending to the social and emotional needs, and practical concerns of not only the patient, but the entire family. The demands on each family can range from the simply inconvenient to the extraordinary, as patients cope with their own health crisis, while simultaneously coping with the needs of their children and families, their jobs and other responsibilities, as well as practical concerns such as insurance, increased financial demands, lengthy hospitalizations, frequent clinic visits, and possibly, end of life. The social worker can help to formulate a plan that makes it possible for each family to develop their own unique responses to circumstances encountered in their diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

Total Parenteral Nutrition is sometimes considered invasive and expensive by patients and their families.  While the procedure for placing the tube can be done in the hospital or physician's office, it is a quick procedure. The cost of TPN is covered by most insurance carriers (with written doctor's orders), but out-of-pocket costs can vary depending on the health plan and the carrier.  Thus, economic strain should be a consideration for the social worker when assessing a patient's and family's needs.