Nutritional Habits of the Student Nurses of a Tertiary Care Institute of North India

Abstract

Student nurses are the future role models for health promoting behaviors. One of the most important of such behaviors is healthy eating habits. This study was carried out to assess the nutritional habits of nursing students. A descriptive study was conducted on 199 nursing students of National Institute of Nursing Education (NINE) in a tertiary care institute of north India. Systematic random sampling was adopted. Subjects were interviewed based on questionnaire that comprised of identification data, socio-demographic data and nutritional habits. Among subjects, 113 (56.8%) were vegetarians and 39 (19.6%) were non-vegetarians. More than two-third of the subjects, 155 (77.9%) were eating their meals from mess. 119 (59.9%) never skipped their breakfast, 96 (48.3%) never skipped their lunch, 91 (45.8%) never skipped their dinner. 90 (45.2%) subjects preferred to keep fruits in their eatable stock and 179 (89.9%) were not in the habit of dieting. The study revealed that the opinion of more than half of the subjects, 110 (55.2%) was that they have healthy nutritional habits. Based on the findings of the study, it is clear that some of the faulty nutritional habits are practiced by nursing students. Hence, appropriate nutritional interventions should be introduced for them to promote healthy eating.