Student nurses’ views of right to food of older adults in care homes

Abstract

Background: Human rights are an important part of nursing practice. Although there is increasing recognition regarding the importance of including human rights education in nursing education, few studies have focused on nursing students’ perspectives and experiences in relation to human rights in nursing, especially regarding older nursing home residents’ right to food. Objective: To explore nursing students’ perspectives and experiences in relation to the right to food. Research design: The study followed a qualitative interpretative research design. Data were collected from multistage focus groups before, during and after clinical placement in a nursing home and analysed through thematic analysis. Participants and research context: Participants were 18 first-year nursing students; the study was conducted in 2017. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Findings: Students’ understanding of older nursing home residents’ right to food was a dynamic process. Their perceptions evolved from a polarized perspective to a reality orientation and finally to retrospective reflection. Discussion: The article discusses how nursing students learn about and understand human rights within and throughout their placements. Conclusion: The study bridges human rights theory and practice. Findings suggest that the human right to food must be enacted in daily practice for students to learn in context. Human rights education, specifically pertaining to nutritional care, thus benefits from a practice-oriented approach preparing students to face ‘real life’ challenges and ethical dilemmas. Findings will help nurse educators tailor education in this field.

Human rights and nutritional care in nurse education: lessons learned

“… 7 , 13 , 26 In the present study, the nursing students recognized and addressed several structural challenges: in particular, the lack of professional chefs to prepare food and meals – a task that was left to the nursing students or healthcare staff; the lack of individual choice during mealtimes; the fact that some residents had to isolate themselves in their rooms due to stressful mealtimes with the other residents and inadequate routines for nutritional screening and documentation. 37 , 38 …”

“…In our study, we found that learning took place when students talked about and reflected upon their own experiences with other students and with their supervisors, but also in their interactions with the residents. 37 , 38 The emphasis on context and relationship is not new to HRE. For instance, Tibbits argues that human rights learning and accountability develop through participation and socialization.…”

“…Two multistage focus group interviews were conducted with 18 nursing students before, during and after placement to obtain knowledge and understanding about nursing students’ views on the right to food throughout their placement. 37 Based on the findings, changes were made to the initial coursework. Those findings underscored the importance of clinical placement for nursing students with regard to learning about human rights.…”

“…Topics that the students found challenging in the first round 37 were emphasized in the second round of the coursework: namely, ethical challenges related to food, nutrition, diet and meal situations; structural challenges related to nutritional care in practice; roles in nutritional care; handling challenges around the right to food in nursing homes; empowering students to reflect on and discuss ethical challenges and rights violations with their supervisor and fellow students and contextualizing learning about the right to food using the students’ own experiences during their placement (see Table 1 ). Further emphasis was placed on human rights principles – dignity, empowerment, accountability, participation and non-discrimination – in relation to food and mealtimes through discussions and reflections in small groups, aiming at making the students more aware of the complexity of nutritional care.…”

“…This article is part of a larger study on the development of coursework about the right to food and nutrition for nursing students: while this article draws upon reflections and lessons learned in developing the coursework, previous articles from the study investigated students’ understanding of and learning about the right to food. 37 , 38 …”