Abstract
A phenomenological study on the experience of patients who were denied food/drink whilst receiving total parenteral nutrition. This qualitative study focuses on the experience of patients who were denied normal food and drink, whilst receiving total parenteral nutrition for a period in hospital. The research was designed to measure areas of patient experience and reaction in relation to the patient's total situation and to the equipment providing the parenteral nutrition. Data was gathered from interviews with 10 adult patients in a surgical ward of one hospital (Norway).
The presentation of the experience of patients were including their reactions to normal food and drink stimuli, to what extent they experienced loss of mobility, and to the degree of anxiety.
The experiences were analyzed on the basis of Miles & Huberman's qualitative analyses. Evaluation of the patients' experiences has been made on the basis of comfort as a dimension of health care, including to some degree the patients' subjective feelings, and Paterson & Zderads nursing concepts “all-at-once”, “clinical” and “comfort.” The study indicates that discomfort associated with intravenous feeding variesfrom pain (as a result of the equipment) to a feeling of deprivation (being denied normal food/drink) and to a variety of anxieties. Patients feel nurses give satisfactory assistance in handling the discomfort of not eating and drinking. Contact with and confidence in the nurses was an important factor in promoting patient comfort. It would seen that patient comfort would be strengthened by more information about the care and treatment they will receive. The change-over from parenteral nutrition to normal eating/drinking was accompanied of both pleasure and disappointments. The results of the study suggest changes in nursing practice, and the need for further studies of patient experience and tacit knowledge possessed by nurses.
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