Nutrition Focused Physical Assessment (NFPA) Teaching Practices in Accreditation Council For Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND)-Accredited Dietetic Internships and Coordinated Programs (DIs/CPs)

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jand.2012.06.077
• Publication Date: 2012-08-19T05:26:38Z
• Authors: J.L. Kidd; D.R. Radler; R.A. Brody; J.S. Parrott
• Keywords: Competency Assessment

Background: While nutrition focused physical assessment (NFPA) is integral in the Nutrition Care Process, there are no clearly delineated Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition andDietetics (ACEND) competencies requiringDietetic Internships andCoordinatedPrograms (DIs/CPs) to teach students and interns to performphysical assessment. Objective: To explore current NFPA teaching practices within DIs/CPs and perceived barriers and enablers to teachingNFPA skills. Design: Prospective,web-based survey. Subjects:Ninety-one (32.8%)ACENDaccredited DI/CP directors or their designee participated in the survey. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive statistics were used to report NFPA skills taught and barriers and enablers to teaching NFPA. Results: NFPA skills most frequently taught to be performed were related to anthropometrics: weight (82.0%), height (79.8%), waist circumference (64.0%), skinfold calipers use (55.1%), and bioelectrical impedance analysis (45.5%). Of non-anthropometric NFPA skills cited, skin assessmentwas themost frequently taught (64.4%), while dysphagia screening and cranial nerve screeningwere cited by 38.4% and 7.2% of respondents, respectively. Interest in teaching NFPA among program educators was cited as an enabler (46.6%) to teaching NFPA. Cited barriers to teaching NFPA skills included availability of educators trained in NFPA (56.2%), availability of multi-media resources (52.1%), and NFPA experience of supervised practice preceptors (50.7%). Conclusions: The results indicate that programs most frequently teach students to perform anthropometric measurements. Future research may address barriers including the need for comprehensive NFPA training, experienced preceptors in NFPA, and multi-media resources in order to increase frequency of NFPA skills taught to students and interns.