Food as medicine

There is a reason we offer to bring chicken soup to someone with a cold. When we are ill food is often more than just a comfort, it can be an important part of the healing process. And this isn’t just at home but in hospitals too. To highlight the important role food plays, the interprofessional teams on 12 South and 10 North launched a protected mealtime pilot during nutrition month.

For one week on each unit, meals were delivered to patients at a set time during which all non-urgent clinical activity would stop. This protected mealtime allowed patients to eat in a calm environment without unnecessary interruption.

Dietitian Marlene Choleva notes that in the busy hospital environment we often forget that food is medicine too, “Hospital nutrition care is crucial to patients overall support and recovery as well as leading to shorter hospital stays, benefiting both the patient and the hospital as a whole.”

Protected mealtime also has the benefit of helping clinicians plan their day and has been proven to help prevent pressure injuries.

Besides tests and procedures, patients need warm, fresh food just like the rest of us to ensure adequate nutrients to get better and happier. Nurses on 12 South recognized that the pilot made this possible and noticed that the call bell seemed to ring less as well.