The efficacy of protected mealtimes in reducing mealtime interruptions and improving mealtime assistance in adult inpatients in an Australian hospital

Abstract

The PMP increased nursing staff availability at mealtimes and feeding assistance, but also increased mealtime interruptions. This may explain the lack of change in patient energy and protein consumption. Strategies promoting adherence with PMP implementation, such as nurse ward champions or nursing staff driving PMP implementation, may be required to maximise the benefits of protected mealtimes.

Raising a beautiful swan: a phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation of health professionals’ experiences of participating in a mealtime intervention inspired by Protected Mealtimes

“…The concept of Protected Mealtimes was considered by Dickinson et al (2008) to be an important tool for changing mealtime practices in which patients could eat with interruptions. This contrasts with the findings by Huxtable and Palmer (2013) that suggested that interruptions by the caregivers were increased by providing Protected Mealtimes. However, our study showed, in line with Ullrich et al (2011), that mealtime interventions inspired by Protected Mealtimes are not only about decreasing interruption during mealtimes, but also about providing ownership of mealtime activity to the caregivers, resulting in an increased priority of mealtime care.…”

“…However, conflicting results exist regarding the effect of PM on patients. Some studies have suggested that even though patients valued the protected mealtimes, their food intake did not increase (Hickson, Connolly, & Whelan, 2011; Young et al, 2016) and energy and protein consumption did not change (Huxtable & Palmer, 2013). However, the implementation of PM is justified in the research literature by claiming that some aspects of the PM concept showed significant improvement, for example increased mealtime assistance (Porter, Ottrey, & Huggins, 2017), as well as increased mealtime interruptions.…”

The impact of trained volunteer mealtime assistants on dietary intake and satisfaction with mealtime care in adult hospital inpatients: A systematic review

“…Publication date ranged from 2002 to 2015, with eight published within the last 5 years [32,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. The setting in thirteen articles was an acute hospital [32,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], with the remaining study set in a short stay dementia assessment unit [51]. The UK was the most common location (7 articles) [39,41,[44][45][46][47]50], followed by Australia (4 articles) [32,42,43,49], the United States (2 articles) [40,48] and New Zealand (1 article) [51].…”

“…Publication date ranged from 2002 to 2015, with eight published within the last 5 years [32,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. The setting in thirteen articles was an acute hospital [32,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], with the remaining study set in a short stay dementia assessment unit [51].…”

“…The use of coloured meal trays to identify patients who need assistance or encouragement has been reported [30], but there is no evidence examining their impact on clinical outcomes. Studies of protected mealtimes, where all non-urgent activity ceases, have failed to demonstrate any impact on nutritional intake [31][32][33]. Mealtime assistants are trained staff or volunteers who provide additional mealtime support (such as cleaning patients' tables, positioning meal trays, opening packaging, cutting up food, and feeding patients).…”