Interprofessional continuing health education for diabetic patients in an urban underserved community.

The CPD(iQ) Saskatchewan Project (ICEC(4)) is directed by the Inter-Professional Continuing Education for Collaborative Client Centered Care Committee, representing the disciplines of medicine, nursing, physical therapy, pharmacy, kinesiology and dentistry at the University of Saskatchewan. It was designed to serve two target audiences: the urban underserved community that would access services at the West Winds Primary Care Centre; and health professionals at the West Winds who would deliver educational modules to those in need. The main objectives were to identify the learning needs of health professionals related to working collaboratively in urban underserved community settings; identify and develop relevant educational modules to address needs identified, implement the program, and evaluate participants' experience with the educational modules. Evaluation consisted of debriefing after each educational session and the completion of a self administered questionnaire. Findings from this pilot study. The results of the study suggest the modules as a useful approach to addressing some of the barriers to effective inter-professional collaborative care. Common themes from the evaluation included satisfaction with learning other professionals' contributions to patient care. The module format may serve useful in an inter-professional case-based clinical educational setting.

Dietary intakes of Canadians in the 1990s using population-weighted data derived from the provincial nutrition surveys.

Provincial nutrition surveys of adults were conducted between 1990 and 1999 in Canada. Eight reports have been issued, and one is forthcoming. The purpose of this study was to estimate the national dietary intake of adult Canadians, using the publicly available data. Group mean-nutrient-intake data from 16 915 adults, aged 18 to 84 years, from published provincial reports were collated by age and sex for each of 9 provinces (Manitoba data were unavailable). Using Canadian census data appropriate to the year of collection, intake data were weighted to provide 1 national intake value for each nutrient, by 8 age and sex categories. In general, the energy and nutrient intake of adults decreased with age. For every age group, with the exception of vitamin C, intake of nutrients by men was greater than that by women. On the basis of a comparison of recently recommended intakes (Dietary Reference Intakes), the nutrients that are of concern because of inadequate intake include dietary fibre, calcium, magnesium, and folate. The data demonstrate the impact of folate fortification on folate intake; the mean intake became twice that of prefortification levels. This study used group mean-intake data; therefore, we cannot make definitive conclusions about the prevalence of inadequacy for the nutrients. Because of limitations with some provincial response rates, our data should not be construed as representative of the Canadian population. However, because these surveys were completed between the 19701972 Nutrition Canada Survey and the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey, these population-weighted data might be a useful point of comparison for monitoring trends in nutrient intake from food.