Staffing Patterns of Dietetic Clinics

Responsibilities and time demands of the dietetic clinic staff within institutions containing dietetic internships were investigated. Information was obtained from a questionnaire and observation of the diet instruction time records at the Dietetic Clinic at The University of Tennessee Memorial Research Center and Hospital (UTMRCH). The sample consisted of 45 dietetic clinics whose directors returned the completed instrument.

The staffing patterns of the dietetic clinics varied widely. There was a broad range of educational levels, man-hours worked, and defined responsibilities in the department, institution and community of the personnel in the participating clinics. Time averages are presented for some responsibilities.

Each selected dietetic clinic staff was responsible for the supervision of dietetic students as well as therapeutic diet instruction of the patients. The larger percent of the clients were outpatients who were referred clinic or private patients. Printed educational materials were utilized by all the clinics whereas movies and slides were used by less than one-half the reporting institutions. Almost one-fourth of the directors reported that they modified the diet to the client following the physician's prescribed general diet; whereas no one reported that they prescribed the diet according to the physician's diagnosis as the solitary method of arriving at the prescription.