Hospital "cuisine" & cultural diversity

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 2, 2002

San Jose-area hospitals add diversity to menu

Hospitals in the San Jose area have adapted to changes in the cultural backgrounds of their patients with changes in their menus. Now patients from all over the world may see their favorite foods on hospital menus all over the area.

But farther down on the menu were choices Saini never expected to encounter in an American hospital: alu chole, dhingri matar, and her favorite, a spinach and cheese dish called palak paneer -- home-style vegetarian cuisine her mother might have cooked had Saini given birth to her babies in her native New Delhi.

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/ethnicfo02ps.htm

[Stargazer]

Interesting article, NRSKaren. Despite all the "Cultural Diversity in Nursing" classes I had in school, I confess the food issue just never seemed that important to me. I mean, hospital food sucks anyway, right? So what's the difference?

Now, in my current position, I am a part-time case manager for company employees who have ongoing health needs and/or are hospitalized. Many of them are Asian (Indonesian and Filipino) and have a REALLY difficult time with Western-style hospital meals, finding them bland, unfamiliar and unappetizing. Unfortunately, despite a huge and diverse Asian population, most area hospitals' "Asian meals" consist of sending up rice along with the usual Western foods. We have ended up bringing in packaged ramen noodles and take-out Thai food for our guys because they just don't eat otherwise. I'd love to see more hospitals addressing this.

[prmenrs, RN]

but the food service administration has to be committed to it. Like having "guest chefs" from local ethnic restaurants. They could prepare food for your clients, or share recipes w/the hospital's chefs. With so many hospital food services being run by hotel chains (ours is w/Marriott), they are usually receptive to requests by patients.

[fergus51]

I don't know why it is so hard, our food services department is like the UN.

[mattcastens]

Now if they could add healthy food to the mix, they'd really be on to something.