Attitudes of Hospital Dietary Supervisors as Affected by a Training Program

Attitudes of hospital dietary supervisors were measured as affected by a training program. The training program consisted of slides and a commentary on the managerial skills used by supervisors.

A pretest and posttest on the content of the training program were given to the supervisors participating in the training program. An attitude questionnaire was administered to the supervisors in the training program and to their subordinates. The supervisors and subordinates were classified by levels of education and periods of employment.

The mean scores of the achievement posttest showed a significant increase over the mean scores of the achievement pretest. This could indicate an increase in knowledge on the content of the training program by the participating supervisors. The attitude questionnaire mean scores of the participating supervisors did not show a significant increase. The supervisors' and the subordinates' attitude questionnaire mean scores differed significantly on the pretest and posttest. Attitudes are difficult to change, and do not necessarily result in a change of behavior. There were inconsistent changes in mean attitude questionnaire scores for the classifications of biographical data attributable to the small numbers in each classification.

The results of this study indicated that the attitude questionnaire posttest mean scores of the supervisors did not increase significantly after the training program. The achievement posttest mean scores did increase significantly after the training program.