Nutrition

nurse wellbeing nutrition Sep 18, 2025

Eating Well, Caring Well - the importance of nutrition for perioperative nurses 🍎🥦

The role of nutrition for the wellbeing of perioperative nurses has many important elements. Good nutrition underpins physical and mental resilience, and supports longevity, each of which is essential in the high‐stress, non-stop environment of the perioperative space. ✅

🔹 Perioperative nurses are subjected to long hours, including night shift, and high workloads. These factors can easily disrupt regular eating patterns and lead to skipped meals, reliance on convenience or fast foods, and poorer overall diet quality. Poor nutrition in this context contributes to fatigue, reduced alertness, slower recovery from stress, and increased risk of errors. You can see then, how suboptimal nutrition can directly impact both nurse wellbeing and patient safety.

🔹 From a mental wellbeing perspective, nutrient deficiencies, erratic eating, high consumption of junk foods, or dehydration can exacerbate stress, mood swings, anxiety, and cognitive fatigue. For perioperative nurses, who must make rapid decisions, manage emergencies, and stay mentally sharp, these consequences can impair job performance and increase risk of burnout. 🧠💧

🔹 A well rounded, nutritious diet is known to improve physical health outcomes. Good nutrition supports immune function, helps maintain healthy weight, reduces risk of chronic diseases, and promotes better sleep. For nurses regularly exposed to pathogens and physical demands, maintaining immunity and energy stores is crucial. Poor diet, combined with disturbed sleep from shift work, can lead to increased illness, increased unplanned leave, and compromised capacity. 🛌

🔹 From an organisational perspective, several factors influence whether nurses can eat well. Barriers to good nutrition include missing scheduled breaks, lack of access to healthy food, particularly during nights, limited food prep time, and insufficient support for meal planning. Interventions such as providing healthy food options on site and structured break times can help. 🏥🍲

For perioperative nurses, good nutrition is not just a personal matter, it's central to physical health, mental resilience, job performance, and patient safety. Healthcare networks, managers, and nurses themselves all have roles in promoting and enabling better dietary practices.

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References and resources:

Gifkins, J., Johnston, A., & Loudoun, R. (2018). The impact of shift work on eating patterns and self-care strategies utilised by experienced and inexperienced nurses. Chronobiology International. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2018.1466790

Matheson, A., O’Brien, L., & Reid, J.-A. (2014). The impact of shiftwork on health: A literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(23-24), 3309-3319. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12524 

Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal. (2021, August 10). A dietitian’s 5 ways to eat healthier on night shift for nurses and midwives. ANMJ. https://anmj.org.au/a-dietitians-5-ways-to-eat-healthier-on-night-shift-for-nurses-and-midwives/ Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal

Sutherland, R., & Cheng, K. K. (2020). Hospital and shift work influences on nurses’ dietary behaviors. Workplace Health & Safety. (see SAGE). https://doi.org/10.1177/2165079919890351

Smith, L., & Johnston, D. W. (year). Enablers and barriers to healthy eating among hospital nurses: A socio‐ecological approach. Journal Name. (Actual year, volume, pages). Note: full bibliographic details not located. (There was a review “Enablers and barriers to healthy eating among hospital nurses” published via ScienceDirect).

Association between shift work and obesity among nurses: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Nursing Scholarship. (Actual year). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.07.017 Note: exact journal and year approximated. 

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