This clinical skills series is designed for the nursing professional as a basic overview on key clinical skills necessary for patient care, clearly presenting common clinical procedures and their rationale, together with the essential background theory. In this fifth article in the series, Jane Fletcher explores ways in which nurses can assess their patients and identify those at risk of malnutrition. This is done by using a nursing nutrition assessment as part of the overall holistic nursing assessment, anthropometric measurements such as body mass index and mid upper arm circumference, and a nutrition screening tool such as the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool.