Development of Job Standards for Clinical Dietitians Administering Clinical Nutrition Therapy to Diabetic Patients in Hospitals

Abstract

This study was conducted to develop job standards for clinical dietitian administering clinical nutrition therapy to diabetic patients in hospitals. Based on DACUM (Developing A Curriculum) analysis of 17 members including clinical dietitians, professors majoring in clinical nutrition and researchers, information on duties, tasks and task elements of clinical dietitians for diabetes care were derived and applied to diabetes mellitus-specific clinical nutrition care in hospitals for evaluation. The final developed job standards for clinical dietitians for diabetes care included four duties, 19 tasks and 56 task elements. The duties consisted of nutrition assessment, nutrition diagnosis, nutrition intervention, and nutrition monitoringㆍevaluation. For application of diabetes mellitus-specific job standards in clinical nutrition care, 108 work activities were developed and classified into 90 basic and 18 recommended types. Performance rates of standardized jobs were 80.2% at nutrition assessment, 99.6% at nutrition diagnosis, 78.5% at nutrition intervention, and 32.9% at nutrition monitoringㆍevaluation. These results can be applied as guidelines to implement jobs for diabetes mellitus-specific clinical nutrition services in clinical settings. In addition, they would be useful for education standards in educational institutions for education and training of clinical dietitian.