What are the challenges and potential advantages of implementing process-guided methods in the practice of nutrition counselling and dietetic therapy?
- 25.10.2023
- English Articles
- Laura Hoffmann
- Maren Peuker
- Ute Hager
- Talitha Wiegand
- Karen Amerschläger
- Irmtraud Weidenbach
- Roland Radziwill
- Kathrin Kohlenberg-Müller
Peer reviewed / Manuscript (original) submitted: 28 April 2022 / Revision accepted: 05 October 2022
Results for Dietetic Assessment and Dietetic Diagnosis
Background
Process-guided methods support certified nutritionists and dietitians in the structured planning, implementation and evaluation of dietetic interventions [1], contribute to quality improvement and increase quality of care [2, 3]. The Dietetic Care Process (DCP) is a process model consisting of five interrelated process steps that cover the whole of nutrition counselling and dietetic therapy (NCDT) [4, 5] (• Figure 1): Dietetic Assessment, Dietetic Diagnosis, Planning Dietetic Intervention, Implementing Dietetic Intervention and Dietetic Outcome Evaluation [5]. According to the DCP, process-guided NCDT begins with Dietetic Assessment and Dietetic Diagnosis, which are essential to achieve a targeted dietetic intervention [6, 7]. Various professional associations are working on theoretical concepts for these two process steps [4, 6–11].
Assessment has been described as an important component of quality management in health care [12]. In Dietetic Assessment, the emphasis is on a systematic approach involving the clustering of data into predefined categories [3, 4, 10] (• Table 1). In the DCP, this is done in accordance with the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) and the Nutrition Care Process Terminology (NCPT), or according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (• Table 2) [4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 14]. To operationalize the processes, the use of validated methods is emphasized in order to enable the collection of high-quality data, especially for Dietetic Diagnosis and Dietetic Outcome Evaluation [3, 4, 7]. ...
Abstract
Workable concepts are needed for the transfer of process models for nutrition counselling and dietetic therapy (NCDT) into practice. The aim of this qualitative study was to jointly develop concepts for the implementation and documentation of dietetic assessment and dietetic diagnosis based on the Dietetic Care Process (DCP) process model in three focus groups with certified nutritionists and dietitians from the outpatient and inpatient sectors of NCDT.
Possible advantages as well as conflicts within the theoretically required contents were reflected upon in terms of their practical implementation and adapted in a goal-oriented manner. The study demonstrated that there is a need to strengthen the discourse on evidence-based dietetic practice with science-based support and guidance for practical implementation and long-term application.
Keywords: nutrition counselling, dietetic therapy, process-guided methods (DCP), implementation in practice, dietetics, quality improvement
