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Background: Half of the elderly patients receiving home-based nursing care are undernourished or are in danger of this. National professional guidelines and Kosthandboka (nutrition manual) provide advice on how healthcare services can prevent and treat undernutrition. Screening for nutritional status must be performed regularly for all patients. Without good screening routines, it may be difficult to detect undernutrition. Inspection shows that the screening process varies among municipalities, despite the fact that the nurse has a clear responsibility to screen for nutritional status. Objective: To elicit good solutions that simplify and systemise the assessment of nutritional status. Results: Many elderly patients present a complex clinical picture that complicates the assessment of nutritional status. Short visits to patients make it difficult to prioritise screening for nutritional status. Moreover, the large selection of screening tools available makes it challenging to choose the best suited. The short form of the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF) is evaluated as being best. The MNA is based on weight and height measurement (BMI). Standing on a set of scales may be a challenge for some elderly patients. Moreover, a changing body posture or being bedridden may make height measurements uncertain. In the MNA-SF, measurement of calf circumference can replace BMI. Managers are well positioned to put screening on the agenda as part of interdisciplinary nutritional efforts. Nurses want to have more nutritional expertise and a clearer allocation of responsibility. A variety of studies call for more knowledge about screening tools and a better standard of documentation of nutritional data in electronic patient records (EPR). Therefore, expertise is of key importance in strengthening and quality assuring nutritional efforts. Conclusion: Screening for nutritional status can make it easier to detect nutritional problems before undernutrition arises. A good solution is to screen for nutritional status using the Mini Nutritional Assessment short form (MNA-SF). The nutrition manual provides useful tips.

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