University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researcher wins A.S.P.E.N. award

Michele Nicolo, MS, RD, CDE, CNSC, Advanced Clinical Dietitian Specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has been named a Research Trainee Award recipient by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral (A.S.P.E.N.). The award is for her research on protein delivery and its effects on clinical outcomes in critically ill patients that she will present at A.S.P.E.N.'s Clinical Nutrition Week conference in Long Beach, California, February 14 to 17.

Ms. Nicolo and her colleagues investigated whether greater protein delivery for patients would be associated with lower mortality and shorter time to discharge.

Outcomes research in critically ill patients suggests a link between the amount of energy received and mortality. However, few studies have examined outcomes related to protein delivery. This study evaluated the impact of actual protein delivery on mortality and time to discharge alive in critically ill patients using data from the International Nutrition Survey 2013.

The study found that achieving at least 80 percent of protein goal may be important to survival and may shorten time in the hospital in critically ill patients. Efforts to achieve goal protein intake should be maximized as a key goal of feeding in such patients and may be more important than optimizing energy intake.

Ms. Nicolo is also a 2014 grantee of the A.S.P.E.N. Rhoads Research Foundation, and she has been named as a candidate for the Harry M. Vars Award that A.S.P.E.N. will announce at the upcoming Clinical Nutrition Week conference.

"A.S.P.E.N. is honored to be a supporter of Ms. Nicolo's research and to have the opportunity to formally recognize her important work," said Debra Ben Avram, CEO of A.S.P.E.N.

Provided by American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.)