Högskolan i Skövde

The meal environment is the first impression of a meal, and, if it is not appealing, it lowers the willingness to eat. Malnutrition is the registered nurses’ (RN) responsibility in the municipality. However, the responsibility of the meal environment is unclear. Therefore, semi-structured interviews with 10 nurses were held, aiming to explore RNs’ experiences of meal environment within long-term care facilities for older persons, analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The study method was compliant with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist. The meal environment became a grey area of responsibility, overshadowed by focus on nutrition for the RN. The RN expressed how they did not consider it part of their role to create a positive mealtime environment, avoiding the meal environment at mealtimes. However, they experienced an obstacle of raising these needs were lack of time and a stagnant view of the division of labor between the RN and assistant nurse, leading to the meal environment becoming no one’s responsibility.