Barriers to nutritional care for the undernourished hospitalised older people†

Aims and objectives. To identify what nurses experience as barriers to ensuring adequate nutritional care for undernourished hospitalised older people. Background. Undernutrition occurs frequently among hospitalised older people and can result in a variety of negative consequences if not treated. Nevertheless, undernutrition is often unrecognised and undertreated. Nurses have a great responsibility for nutritional care, as this is part of the patient’s basic needs. Exploring nurses’ experiences of preventing and treating undernourishment among older patients in hospitals is therefore highly relevant. Design. A focus group study was employed based on a hermeneutic phenomenological methodological approach. Methods. Four focus group interviews with a total of 16 nurses working in one large university hospital in Norway were conducted in spring 2012. The nurses were recruited from seven wards, all with a high proportion of older (≥70 years) inpatients. The data were analysed in the three interpretative contexts: self-understanding, a critical common-sense understanding and a theoretical understanding. Results. We identified five themes that reflect barriers that nurses experience in relation to ensuring adequate nutritional care for undernourished older people: loneliness in nutritional care, a need for competence in nutritional care, low flexibility in food service practices, system failure in nutritional care and the neglect of nutritional care. Conclusions. The results imply that nutritional care at the university hospital has its limits within the hospital structure and organisation, but also regarding the nurses’ competence. Moreover, the barriers revealed that undernourished older people are not identified and treated properly as stipulated in the recommendations in the national guidelines on the prevention and treatment of undernutrition. What does this paper contribute to the wider global clinical community?