Hospital meals are existential asylums to hospitalized people with a neurological disease: A phenomenological-hermeneutical explorative study of the meaningfulness of mealtimes.
Malene Beck, Regner Birkelund, Ingrid Poulsen and 1 others
PMID 30918713WHAT IT FOUND
Neurological inpatients described hospital mealtimes as lonely, chaotic, and often mechanical.
They said calm, unhurried service, eye contact, and simple conversation with nurses made meals feel human, safe, and connected to life outside the ward.
Key findings
01Hospitalized patients with neurological disease described mealtimes as lonely, and they also described finding community with fellow patients through shared loneliness.
02Patients described calm, unhurried service, staff who asked preferences and made eye contact, and simple conversation as making meals feel more human and safe.
03Patients sometimes preferred eating in bed to avoid interruptions and control their pace, even when this conflicted with staff recommendations.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included 23 inpatients from one neurological department, so the findings may not transfer to other settings or populations. Patients with severe cognitive deficits, expressive aphasia, and dementia were excluded, so the study does not describe mealtime experiences for people with these conditions. The analysis used existing interview data from earlier studies, and staff perspectives were not included, so the findings reflect patient reports rather than a direct comparison of staff and patient views.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as a tested mealtime intervention or as evidence that quieter meals improve nutrition, intake, or neurological outcomes. The study reports experiences from 23 patients in one department and excludes severe cognitive deficits, expressive aphasia, and dementia.