Stream 3
Current guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence advocates a multidisciplinary approach to rehabilitation after critical illness, yet nutritional care post-discharge remains underdeveloped. Despite strong evidence supporting dietetic interventions in other rehabilitation settings such as cardiac, stroke, and pulmonary care, nutrition-focused rehabilitation is underused among ICU survivors.
Post-critical care recovery services rarely include dietetic input, creating a significant gap during the early recovery phase, when patients are most vulnerable to frailty and functional decline. This is compounded by poor integration between acute and community services, often resulting in delays or absence of nutritional support after discharge. The problem is further exacerbated by the lack of structured frameworks to guide nutritional rehabilitation. There is limited consensus on optimal timing, content, and delivery of interventions, alongside insufficient evidence evaluating dietitian-led approaches tailored to ICU survivors. Inequities in access to nutritional care add another layer of concern.
This session aims:
Ella is a critical care dietitian, researcher, and strategic workforce leader with extensive clinical, academic, and national leadership experience across the NHS. She was honoured with an MBE in 2021 for services to critical care dietetics, recognising her sustained contribution to advancing practice, leadership, and professional standards.
She was the professional lead for dietetics for NHS Elect/ ICS AHP Critical Care Capability Framework and most recently is a project lead for the British Dietetic Association’s workforce programme. She is pursuing a PhD focused on improving nutritional recovery after critical illness, has contributed to multiple national publications, and has served as an investigator on NIHR multicentre portfolio studies.
James Jackson is the Principal Dietitian for Critical Care & Major Trauma Services at St Georges University Hospitals NHSFT, London with 10 years experience working in ICU. James is also the Dietetic member of the AHP Professional Advisory Group for the Intensive Care Society.
He has a keen interest in indirect calorimetry and co-chairs the British Dietetic Association Critical Care Specialist Group’s “Indirect Calorimetry Team” and contributes to the “Outcomes Working Group”. James has recently completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Research at Kings College London.
