This article encourages nurses working with older people in general hospital settings to reflect critically on their practice relating to nutritional care. Some approaches to developing practice in the nutritional care of older people are identified.

This article describes the principles behind the assessment of older people’s needs and the challenges inherent in developing a person-centred framework for assessment. It suggests that person-centred assessment calls for skilled, empowered and well-supported nurses who are able to work in creative, innovative ways and who recognise that the needs of the older person are at the centre of all therapeutic working.