Supporting Responsive Practice: Training Dietitians to Meet Clients' Interactional Needs.

Area of Science:

• Dietetics
• Health Psychology
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Patient-centered counseling often focuses on practitioner actions, lacking guidance for real-time client interaction responses.
• Dietitian-client interactions (DCI) are crucial for effective dietary advice, yet understanding client uptake remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel dietitian-client interaction (DCI) training program designed to increase dietitians' awareness of client uptake.
• To explore the perceived relevance and implementation potential of the DCI training among primary care dietitians.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods pilot study involving a two-phase approach: DCI training development and subsequent evaluation.
• Evaluation included pre-post questionnaires and focus groups to assess changes in dietitians' awareness of client uptake and gather feedback on the training's relevance, acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility.

Main Results:

• Dietitians showed increased awareness of client uptake post-training, with significant shifts from 'somewhat aware' to 'aware' on Likert scale items.
• Qualitative analysis revealed key themes: the impact of precise wording, the importance of evidence-oriented listening for client validation, and the need to integrate social/emotional aspects beyond a biomedical perspective.
• Integrated findings confirmed the training fostered deeper, not surface-level, awareness of client uptake, with dietitians rating the training as meaningful, appropriate, and accessible.

Conclusions:

• The DCI training program effectively deepens dietitians' understanding of uptake-oriented approaches and active listening.
• The training demonstrates potential to enhance dietitians' responsiveness to client needs, thereby improving dietary treatment for patients at risk of malnutrition.