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. 2022 Dec;36(4):1206-1216.
doi: 10.1111/scs.13094. Epub 2022 Jul 1.

Dialogue is a prerequisite for the nurse-patient relationship in nutritional care: A secondary analysis using the fundamentals of care framework

Pia Søe Jensen  1   2   3 , Vibeke Nørholm  1 , Ingrid Poulsen  1   3   4 , Helle Vendel Petersen  1
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Dialogue is a prerequisite for the nurse-patient relationship in nutritional care: A secondary analysis using the fundamentals of care framework

Pia Søe Jensen et al. Scand J Caring Sci. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Providing good nutritional care is complex as it goes beyond assessing and ensuring the patients' dietary needs. So far, nutritional research has mainly focused on establishing evidence for the nutritional treatment, while less attention has been on the complexity of providing nutritional care. The Fundamentals of Care (FoC) describes five elements (focus, knowledge, anticipate, evaluate and trust) essential for establishing a nurse-patient relationship as a foundation for quality care. By studying how these elements shape nutritional care and dialogue, we can explore and describe the complexity of nutritional care.

Aim: By using the FoC framework as an analytic framework, this study explores how the nurse-patient relationship shapes the nutritional care of orthopaedic patients.

Method: This study is a secondary analysis using deductive content analysis of interviews with patients undergoing major orthopaedic surgery, nursing staff and observations of interactions between nursing staff and patients. The core dimension of the FoC framework, 'Establishment of relationship,' was used as an analytic framework.

Result: The nurses perceived serving meals and providing nutritional supplements as an essential part of the nutritional care. Still, the nutritional care was organised as a routine task to be less time-consuming. Appropriate care was initiated when the nursing staff explored patients´ food preferences. When the nursing staff failed to familiarise themselves with the patient's preferences, the patients interpreted nutritional care as unrelated to their needs, resulting in a lack of trust.

Conclusion: The need for efficiency within nutritional care must not compromise the patients' need for dialogue with the nurse. Establishing a trusting relationship between nurses and patients prevents nutritional care from becoming a routine task unrelated to the patients' needs.

Keywords: dialogue; fundamentals of care; nurse-patients relationship; nutritional care; orthopaedic care; qualitative research; secondary analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no conflict of interest with the respect to the research and authors and to the publication of this work and are alone responsible for the content and writing of the manuscript.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Distribution of the codes from interviews and fieldnotes according to the presence or absence of each elements/The five elements from the dimension "Establishing the relationship" within the Fundamentals of Care Framework
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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