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Misconceptions and hospital systems restricting older patients’ food intake
"I don’t eat when I’m sick." "The smell of food makes me feel nauseous." "I’m quite depressed at the moment. When you get like that you don’t feel like eating much."
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I think meal times should be quarantined so that nursing staff are available to assist and encourage patients to eat. One issue is that staff are also on meal beaks at the same time as patients and another is that many medications and treatments are ordered for administration around meal times hence nurses are busy with these. I have seen an effective system whereby staff have their meal break on either side of the patient meals times and, part of the daily routine is for nurses to circulate and assist patients at mealtimes. Nurses are encouraged to not interrupt meals for treatment or medication administration (unless required to be taken with meals). Awareness raising(staff education) re the importance of food intake was also a feature of the system. Most nurses are aware of the issues surrounding patient food intake- but often do not have the sufficient staff resources to cope – which is why one work-around is to encourage family members to visit at mealtimes.