Developing Job Description for Dietitians Working in Public Health Nutrition Areas / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The purpose of this study was to develop a standardized job description for dietitians working in the public health nutrition area. Work-oriented job analysis methodology was employed for the study purpose. Subjects of 38 dietitians currently working at health centers in 2002 were recruited. Based on the focus group interview with 7 public health nutritionists and 7 professors, information about task elements was collected. Questionnaires measuring work performance and self-perception of importance of the selected task elements were administered. Reliability and validity of this instrument were tested by Chronbach's alpha and factor analysis. SAS PC package program was used for the statistical analysis. The final developed job description for public health nutritionists included 5 duties, 20 tasks and 93 task elements. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; 1) 5 duty areas are A. plan and evaluation of public health nutrition services, B. developing nutrition education materials, C. implementing nutrition services, D. networking community, and E. self development. 2) Each duty area from A to E was composed with 6, 2, 6, 4, 2 tasks, respectively. 3) Each duty area from A to E was composed with 24, 8, 38, 14, 9, and 2 task elements, respectively.

The Job Satisfaction and Self-assessment of Public Health Nutritionists / 대한지역사회영양학회지

This study was carried out to investigate the general characteristics of public health nutritionists, the current status of nutrition services operation, the recognition about nutrition services of public health center related man power, the job satisfaction and self-assessment and the need for a retraining course of public health nutritionists. The subjects were 58 public health nutritionists who responded to the questionnaire distributed at the annual retraining program in 1998. The results of this study are summarized as follows. 1) 46.5% of the nutritonists were 26-30 years old, 62.1% were 4 year university graduates 74.1% were food and nutriton majors and 51.7% were daily workers. 2) Among the public health center-related manpower, the recognition about nutrition services was the highest for the manager of family health section, followed by the head of public health centers, and then the general nurse in public health centers. 3) The ranking of the reasons for job satisfaction of the public health nutritionists was, relationship with colleagues(3.84), inhabitants response after nutrition counselling(3.53), specialized value realization/conviction about duty(3.35), contents of the work(3.10), value achievement(3.08), self achievement/development(3.00), self discretion(2.92), participation in policy decisions(2.90), work load(2.75), chance of retraining and acquistion of new information(2.73), working environment(2.69), supervision/support by superiors(2.67), salary(2.38), supply of necessary education material, technique(2.37), and budget security(2.22). 4) The satisfaction of the inhibitant's responses after nutrition counseling was the highest among the 4 year university graduates(p<0.05), the satisfaction of the specialized value realization/conviction about duty was the highest among the nutritionists 26-30 years old(p<0.05). Food and nutrition majors(p<0.05) and those having worked less than 3-5years at public health centers also showed much satisfaction(p<0.05). Satisfaction with the salary was the lowest among the food and nutrition majors(p<0.01) and daily workers(p<0.001). The satisfaction with the participation in policy decisions was the lowest among the daily workers(p<0.01). 5) The ranking for the level of self-assessment were, nutrition and dietetic practice(2.92), communication(2.80), management(2.77), public health science and practice(2.66)(p<0.01). The general characteristics such as the level of education, major, employment condition, current public health center's tenure, and charge experience of the nutrition guidance work were not significantly related to self-assessment except the management part(p<0.05). The higher the satisfaction of specialized value realization/conviction about the duty, the better the total score on the self-assessment(p<0.05).

The Current Status and Prospects of Community Nutrition Services: I. A Study on the Perception of Nutrition Services for the Health Center-Directors in Areas Not Employing Public Health Nutritionists

The purposes of this study were to investigate the perception of community nutrition programs and the conditions to carry them out, for 32 directors of health centers where public health nutritionists are not employed. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. Nutrition intervention programs were not carried out actively except those for infants but the health center directors strongly felt the necessity of carrying out various nutrition programs. The factors that affect the selecting and priotizing of nutrition programs were the need of community residents, the perception of the local congressmen, and the head of the local government. The most urgent and important problem to be solved in order to intervene nutrition programs was employing public health nutritionists on a tenure basis. Other were securing necessary revenue, precise guidance, political support, hardwares, etc. These results showed the importance of employing public health nutritionists for intervening appropriate nutrition programs and improving the perception of nutrition services for health center directors, local congressmen and personnels in charge of formulating nutrition policies.