Dietary policy- vent - Page 6

I have to disagree with most of you, I think food should be looked at as part of the treatment plan for patients, If it's a cancer patient who's wasting away or a 90 yr old on their death bed, then by all means eat as much and whatever you'd like. but if your a 350 lb middle aged person who's most likey in the hospital for health reasons related to their obesity in the first place then why on earth would we let them continue to gorge themself in massive amounts of unhealthy food? Put a calorie restriction on them, and give them a specific menu with acceptable choices, So they might be unhappy for a while, but they're not going to starve, and they'll still have options of food they want to eat. Saying they're in the hospital for a couple days and we're never going to change their habits so why bother trying is like saying well they're not compliant with their medications at home so why bother giving them to them while their here. They're in the hospital in improve their health status, that includes nutrition, and we're the one's that should be saying I'm not going to contribute to the problems and habits that put in the hospital in the first place.

If the patient is not on a restrictive diet then we have no right to restrict their eating. Remember patient autonomy? We are NOT food gods. You did that to me when I was in the hospital and didn't have a restricted diet then you'd be hearing about and you wouldn't be the only one I'd be talking about it to. We can promote health but we need to avoid unrestrained self righteousness.

So in the days of acceptable boozing and smoking on the job would you have allowed that as "autonomy"...do really think we have learned nothing about the negative health effects of these types of foods???

Your statement implies I would be living in the past but have knowledge from the future so I'm not going to address that point.

The situation that the OP outlined was a patient who was on a regular diet with NO restriction order a combination of menu items that was allowed on a regular diet. It was within the patients right to do so regardless of their weight. We don't even know why the patient was there. Maybe she fell off her horse or something not related to her eating habits. Either way she was not on a doctored ordered special or restricted diet.

I know you have just started nursing school and this is not a slight but you may not have gotten to the part about patient autonomy and the right to choose or refuse care. We provide care we do not provide judgement.