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Dietetics educators in the United States have followed closely the Educational Competencies Steering Committee's development of the core competencies for entry-level dietitians (1). In preparation for the mandatory implementation of these standards (2), educators are reviewing and updating their dietetics education curricula. Although current curriculum content meets standards established previously by the Commission on Accreditation/Approval for Dietetics Education (CAADE) (3), forward-thinking educators continually monitor the subtle and not-so-subtle changes in the workplace that affect professional practice. Competency measurement and quality improvement dominate every practice setting (4,5), increasing the demand for a dynamic, competitive curriculum that reflects evolving dietetics practice. In a sense, the most effective dietetics programs foreshadow the introduction of new educational standards.
Practitioner competency, a key outcome of program success, is usually evaluated against the standards in place at the time the education was delivered. However, by measuring the competency of recent coordinated program and dietetics internship graduates using the newly approved core competencies, we attempted to evaluate how well our existing programs meet the new standards. We expected to identify gaps that would provide a focus for the review and updating of our curriculum. In this study we evaluated the competency of entry-level dieticians based on employer ratings and self-ratings of graduates in dietetics.
METHODS
Subjects
Entry-level dietitians who graduated from the coordinated program or the dietetics internship from 1994 to 1996 (n=36; all were women) were invited to participate in the study by completing a self-assessment questionnaire and by providing consent for researchers to survey their present employers. Graduates were contacted by telephone or mail after a multipronged search to find relocated people.
Of the 35 graduates who had practiced dietetics (1 graduate who had never practiced was excluded from the study), 33 (94%) agreed to have their employers surveyed to evaluate their skills. Six graduates provided the names of 2 employers. In June 1997, questionnaires were mailed to 39 employers and 35 graduates.
Survey Instrument
The 40-item employer questionnaire was developed based on the new core competencies for entry-level dietitians (2), encompassing clinical dietetics, foodservice management, and community nutrition. The instrument was pilottested and revised to enhance clarity and validity. Employers were asked to use a 5-point Likert scale to rate the entrylevel dietitians only on those competencies pertaining to...