Healthcare Staff Perceptions of the Hospital Food Environment: A Narrative Systematic Review.

Abstract

Objective: To understand healthcare staff perspectives of their hospital food environment, and the impact of these perceptions on their food choice, health and wellbeing.

Design: A narrative systematic review.

Setting: Publications were eligible for inclusion if participants were hospital-based staff, all job roles were eligible, including both clinical and non-clinical staff. Both public and private hospitals in the United Kingdom, United States of America or Australia were included.

Participants: Clinical and non-clinical staff employed in hospitals.

Results: A systematic search was carried out across four databases: OVID Medline, CINAHL, PsycInfo and Scopus. Grey literature screening was completed via Google and Google Scholar. Eleven studies were included and were predominantly from the UK. Setting sizes varied or were unknown and participant numbers varied (n=16 to n=1158) or were unknown. Most participants were nurses. Methods included reports, surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The main themes identified were accessibility to food, diversity of food choices, free foods used to boost staff morale and job role influencing engagement with the food environment. Staff reported issues around canteen opening hours, limited healthy food options, and free food on wards causing extra calories to be consumed. Irregular breaks and staffing shortages affected hospital staff's ability to engage with the wider food environment resulting in reliance on convenience foods and snacks.

Conclusions: The current hospital food environment does not facilitate healthy dietary practices and is perceived by staff as a barrier to healthy eating. The hospital food environment requires adaptation to reflect a 24-hour workplace.