Food police?

[mschelee]

I have a question for the nurses who work ICU step down. In your facility, our patients allowed to have family members bring food into them? Let's say your patient has a renal diet, Or cardiac diet, or even a diabetic diet. Are those patients be allowed to have their family members bring fast food in to them or are they required to stick to the diet that the doctor has set for them?

[MunoRN, RN]

Our open hearts are on the L&D diet; they can order whatever they want whenever they want, if they're eating then we're happy, we don't care what it is.

In general, forcing specific diets is a bit silly. Take a newly diagnosed diabetic for instance, we put them on a diet they won't be eating at home, titrate their glucose control to that diet, and wonder why 3 months later their A1C is 13.

I'd argue this practice can also just help ensure a patient will be less likely, not more likely, to eat the diet we're encouraging them to eat. If you're trying to encourage someone to eat a heart healthy diet, the most important thing is to convince the patient that a heart healthy diet can be enjoyable, if we introduce the heart healthy diet in the form of typical hospital food heart healthy diets, they're just going to be more dead set against the idea.