Assessment of Registered Dietitians' Beliefs and Practices for a Nutrition Counselling Approach.

PURPOSE: This study describes registered dietitians' (RDs) perceptions and use of a nutrition counselling approach (NCA) as defined by the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Nutrition Care Process terminology (NCPT).

METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey was administered to approximately 500 RDs in Alberta, Canada. Items included demographics, job characteristics, perceived knowledge, competence, use of an NCA, training experience, and theory of planned behaviour salient beliefs. Descriptive analyses compared RDs who counselled "all or most" of their clients with those who counselled "some or none." Salient beliefs were analyzed using content analysis.

RESULTS: Of the 349 RDs who completed the survey, 64.2% provided an NCA to "all or most" of their patients. RDs were supportive of using an NCA (mean = 8.7/10, SD = 1.9) and most RDs (84.5%) had received training on an NCA. Salient beliefs included advantages (e.g., improved behaviour change in patients) and disadvantages (e.g., inadequate time). Normative referents included colleagues (e.g., multidisciplinary team), managers, patients/clients, College of RDs of Alberta, and counsellors. The barriers and enablers were related to patients' situations, infrastructure, and RD supports.

CONCLUSIONS: These results may enable decision makers to more effectively design and target training and implementation programs to improve RDs' NCA.