No longer hungry in hospital: improving the hospital mealtime experience for older people through action research

Abstract

This study demonstrates that it is possible to change nursing practice at mealtimes and that this change leads to improvements in patients' experience through ensuring they receive the help they need. Relevance to clinical practice. Although hospital mealtimes are frequently viewed as problematic, we have shown that nurses can be enabled to make changes to their practice that have a positive impact on both the mealtime experience and wider patient care.