Problems of actuality in meal and nutrition care: Nurses’ perceptions of transfer of knowledge between different care settings

Abstract

This study is based on an issue in nurses’ meal and nutrition care, relating to nurses’ perceptions of transfer of knowledge between different care settings. Through the notion ‘problems of actuality’, the aim is to identify how and why different methods in care may complicate preventive effort related to undernutrition among older adults. It is a qualitative study that lends itself to ethnography and ethnomethodology, with data collected through the use of semi-structured interviews and insights into patients’ medical charts. Through explications of nurses’ methods in meal and nutrition care, and how this work is accomplished within each setting, the study identifies that the different methods involved in meal and nutrition care (defined respectively as social-bodily care and text-based care), create problems in the transfer of knowledge between different care settings. Due to disconnection between social-bodily care work and text-based care work, there is a lack of transfer of knowledge, through which important parts of meal and nutrition care work become invisible. The study finds a need for noticing the disjuncture between social-bodily care and text-based care and for both methods of care, to be recognized as methods that support a delivery of care.