Improving dietitians' teaching skills

Area of Science:

• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Medical Education
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Health professionals, including dietitians, often lack essential patient teaching skills.
• This deficit can hinder patients' understanding and adherence to therapeutic diets.
• Continuing education may enhance dietitian teaching effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the persistence of improved dietitian teaching skills after a continuing education course.
• To determine if enhanced skills impact patient outcomes such as satisfaction and recall.
• To assess specific teaching skill subsets (presentation, essential functions, interpersonal, adherence promotion).

Main Methods:

• Thirty staff dietitians were videotaped teaching patients and randomly assigned to a continuing education course or control group.
• Follow-up videotapes were recorded at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months post-intervention.
• Patient satisfaction and recall were assessed, and two judges rated 20 specific teaching skills.

Main Results:

• Dietitians who completed the 'Effective Patient Teaching' course showed significant skill gains at 1 week and 1 month compared to the control group.
• Gains were observed in presentation and essential teaching functions, but not sustained at 3 months.
• No significant differences were found between groups in patient satisfaction or recall; adherence promotion skills remained low.

Conclusions:

• Continuing education can immediately improve dietitian teaching skills, particularly presentation and essential functions.
• Skill retention is a concern, as improvements were not fully sustained at 3 months.
• Dietitians should self-assess and periodically reassess teaching skills, focusing on adherence promotion.