Nutrition Support Pharmacy Services in Critically Ill Cancer Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Units: A Retrospective Analysis of Clinical Pharmacists’ Interventions

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze clinical pharmacists' interventions in managing nutrition support therapy in critically ill cancer patients admitted to intensive care units. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 9949 electronically reported clinical pharmacist interventions of patients admitted to ICU from January 2020 to December 2022 was conducted. All patients’ records with clinical pharmacists’ interventions related to nutrition support therapy in ICU cancer patients were included and analyzed. Results: The number of interventions for managing nutrition support therapy was 95 (0.95 %). Parenteral nutrition (n = 83, 87.4 %) was the most frequently used class of nutrition support therapies. The evaluation, adjustment, and monitoring of total parenteral nutrition (n = 75, 78.9 %) was the most frequent intervention of clinical pharmacists. The acceptance rate of clinical pharmacists' interventions in nutrition support therapy by physicians was 100 %. Conclusion: Clinical pharmacists have a role in managing specialized nutrition support therapy in critically ill cancer patients. The prevailing clinical pharmacists’ intervention was evaluating, adjusting, and monitoring total parenteral nutrition. More studies are needed to investigate the barriers that prevent the application of nutrition support pharmacy services in Jordan and to find the impact of these services on patient outcomes.