• Geertruida J Groenendijk-van Woudenbergh, Marlies C van Hell-Cromwijk, Ytje J J van der Veen, Hylkje F Algra, and Willemieke Kroeze.
• Department of Nursing, Christian University of Applied Sciences (CHE), Ede, The Netherlands.
• Fam Pract. 2022 Jan 19; 39 (1): 144-149.

BackgroundPractice nurses have an important role in promoting healthy eating to prevent or delay long-term complications from chronic lifestyle-related diseases.ObjectiveTo identify the facilitators and barriers encountered by practice nurses at a professional level when promoting healthy eating among patients.MethodsFace-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 Dutch practice nurses. Data were recorded, transcribed and analysed using inductive thematic analysis.ResultsTwo main themes were determined: professional characteristics and professional-patient encounter. Professional characteristics included good communication skills and experience facilitated the successful promotion of healthy eating, while a lack of communication skills and lack of knowledge about diet were perceived as barriers. The most frequently identified facilitators for professional-patient encounter included ensuring a personal connection with patients, creating food awareness, focussing on small changes, adopting a tailored approach, motivating and arranging extra consultations. Barriers included lack of skills to raise the topic, lack of persistence, inability to find a common understanding, lack of competence in handling patients' own choices and underuse of existing educational materials.ConclusionsFurther research using the identified facilitators and barriers for promoting healthy eating in primary care patients with chronic diseases could assist in the development of future training programmes for practice nurses.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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