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- Title
Getting help with eating -- a study of spinal injury patients' experiences.
- Authors
Martinsen B; Harder I
- Abstract
This article is based on a PhD project, 'Long-term dependency on help with eating. A phenomenological study of spinal injury patients' experiences.' The 16 participants have become dependent on help with eating as a result of an accident.It was a burden for participants that they had to consider all their wishes regarding a meal and express them in words for their wishes to be realised by their helper. The sensual all aspects of the meal were thus toned down and the technical aspects came into focus. As the helpers gradually became more experienced the need for instructions was reduced and partially replaced by sounds and almost invisible signs. During the period immediately after the accident, the spinal injury patients preferred to be helped by relations and regular helpers in places where they could not be observed by strangers. The zone in which the spinal injury patients felt comfortable being helped eating gradually enlarged, although even after several years of meal-related dependency there were places where the spinal injury patients avoided eating. Establishing new eating patterns is a complicated process which requires tact, attention and recognition of the meal's significance in everyday life on the part of the helper.
- Publication
Danish Journal of Nursing / Sygeplejersken, 2008, Vol 108, Issue 24, p46
- ISSN
0106-8350
- Publication type
Journal Article