Hurdles at work: perceptions of hospital food handlers
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BioMed Central
Open Access
Research
Hurdles at work: perceptions of hospital food handlers Cilce Helena Figueiredo Preza Bertin1, Magda Andrade Rezende2, Dirce Maria Sigulem3 and Tania Beninga Morais*4 Address: 1Department of Food and Nutrition, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil, 2Department of Mother and Child Health and Psychiatric Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil, 3Postgraduate Program in Nutrition, Federal University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil and 4Food Quality Control Laboratory, Federal University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Email: Cilce Helena Figueiredo Preza Bertin - [email protected]; Magda Andrade Rezende - [email protected]; Dirce Maria Sigulem - [email protected]; Tania Beninga Morais* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 24 July 2009 Human Resources for Health 2009, 7:63
doi:10.1186/1478-4491-7-63
Received: 13 August 2008 Accepted: 24 July 2009
This article is available from: http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/7/1/63 © 2009 Bertin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Food handlers have a very important role in preventing food contamination during its preparation and distribution. This responsibility is even greater in hospitals, since a large number of patients have low immunity and consequently food contamination by pathogenic bacteria could be particularly harmful. Therefore, a good working environment and periodic training should be provided to food handlers by upper management. Methods: This study is qualitative research by means of focus group and thematic content analysis methodologies to examine, in detail, the statements by food handlers working in the milk and specific-diet kitchens in a hospital to understand the problems they face in the workplace. Results: We found that food handlers are aware of the role they play in restoring patients' health; they consider it important to offer a good-quality diet. However, according to their perceptions, a number of difficulties prevent them from reaching this aim. These include: upper management not prioritizing human and material resources to the dietetic services when making resource allocation decisions; a perception that upper management considers their work to be of lesser importance; delayed overtime payments; lack of periodic training; managers lacking administrative skills; insufficient dietitian staff assistants, leading to overwork, at the same time as there is an excess of dietitians; unhealthy environmental working conditions – high temperature, high humidity, loud and constant noise level, poor ventilation; lack of food, and kitchen utensils and equipment; and relationship conflicts with chief dieticians and co-workers. Conclusi
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