• To enhance your knowledge of healthy eating
• To recognise the challenges nurses experience in maintaining healthy diets at work
• To identify how workplaces can be adapted to support nurses to eat healthily
Maintaining a healthy diet is important for health and longevity. Many diets are recommended for their health-promotion properties. Despite their role in providing health education to patients, nurses do not always maintain healthy diets themselves. The literature shows that a significant number of nurses are overweight or obese. This article reviews the recommended healthy eating guidance and explores why nurses may not always eat healthily. It appears that several characteristics of the nursing role and workplace – notably shift work, fatigue, stress, and suboptimal facilities and availability of healthy foods – make it increasingly challenging for nurses to maintain healthy diets. The article also discusses strategies employers can use to adapt the work environment to support healthy eating.
Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2020.e11535
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence Conflict of interestNone declared
Davies R (2020) Promoting and supporting healthy eating among nurses. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2020.e11535
Published online: 05 June 2020
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