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Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study

BACKGROUND: Effective implementation of nutrition and dietetics interventions necessitates professionals in these fields to possess the requisite competencies for health systems performance. This study explored the stakeholders’ perceptions of the community nutrition and dietetics needs, the nature...

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Autores principales: Kikomeko, Peterson Kato, Ochola, Sophie, Kaaya, Archileo N., Ogada, Irene, Birungi, Tracy Lukiya, Nakitto, Peace
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33504348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06090-3
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author Kikomeko, Peterson Kato
Ochola, Sophie
Kaaya, Archileo N.
Ogada, Irene
Birungi, Tracy Lukiya
Nakitto, Peace
author_facet Kikomeko, Peterson Kato
Ochola, Sophie
Kaaya, Archileo N.
Ogada, Irene
Birungi, Tracy Lukiya
Nakitto, Peace
author_sort Kikomeko, Peterson Kato
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Effective implementation of nutrition and dietetics interventions necessitates professionals in these fields to possess the requisite competencies for health systems performance. This study explored the stakeholders’ perceptions of the community nutrition and dietetics needs, the nature of work done by graduates of the Bachelor’s degree in Human Nutrition/Human Nutrition and Dietetics (HN/HND), and the competencies required of Nutrition and Dietetics professionals in Uganda. METHODS: A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used. Respondents included 132 graduates of the Bachelor’s degrees in HN/HND obtained from the Makerere and Kyambogo Universities in 2005–2016; 14 academic staff that train HN/HND in the two universities; and 11 HN/HND work/internship supervisors. Data from the graduates was collected through an email-based survey; data from other participants was through face to face interviews using researcher administered questionnaires. RESULTS: Most HN/HND respondents (84.8%) obtained their Bachelor’s degrees from Kyambogo University; 61.4% graduated in 2013–2016. Most (64.3%) academic staff respondents were females and the majority (57.1%) had doctorate training. All stakeholders viewed communities as facing a variety of nutrition and dietetics challenges cutting across different Sustainable Development Goals. The nutrition and dietetics interventions requested for, provided, and considered a priority for communities were both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive. Work done by HN/HND graduates encompassed seven main competency domains; the dominant being organizational leadership and management; management of nutrition-related disease conditions; nutrition and health promotion; research; and advocacy, communication, and awareness creation. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that nutrition and dietetics challenges in Uganda are multiple and multifaceted; HN/HND graduates are employed in different sectors, provide nutrition-specific and sensitive services in a multisectoral environment, and are expected to possess a variety of knowledge and skills. However, graduates have knowledge and skills gaps in some of the areas they are expected to exhibit competency. We recommend using these findings as a basis for obtaining stakeholder consensus on the key competencies that should be exhibited by all HN/HND graduates in Uganda; developing a HN/HND competency-based education model and a national HN/HND training and practice standard; and undertaking further research to understand the quality and relevancy of HN/HND curricula to Uganda’s job market requirements. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06090-3.
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spelling pubmed-78392202021-01-27 Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study Kikomeko, Peterson Kato Ochola, Sophie Kaaya, Archileo N. Ogada, Irene Birungi, Tracy Lukiya Nakitto, Peace BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Effective implementation of nutrition and dietetics interventions necessitates professionals in these fields to possess the requisite competencies for health systems performance. This study explored the stakeholders’ perceptions of the community nutrition and dietetics needs, the nature of work done by graduates of the Bachelor’s degree in Human Nutrition/Human Nutrition and Dietetics (HN/HND), and the competencies required of Nutrition and Dietetics professionals in Uganda. METHODS: A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used. Respondents included 132 graduates of the Bachelor’s degrees in HN/HND obtained from the Makerere and Kyambogo Universities in 2005–2016; 14 academic staff that train HN/HND in the two universities; and 11 HN/HND work/internship supervisors. Data from the graduates was collected through an email-based survey; data from other participants was through face to face interviews using researcher administered questionnaires. RESULTS: Most HN/HND respondents (84.8%) obtained their Bachelor’s degrees from Kyambogo University; 61.4% graduated in 2013–2016. Most (64.3%) academic staff respondents were females and the majority (57.1%) had doctorate training. All stakeholders viewed communities as facing a variety of nutrition and dietetics challenges cutting across different Sustainable Development Goals. The nutrition and dietetics interventions requested for, provided, and considered a priority for communities were both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive. Work done by HN/HND graduates encompassed seven main competency domains; the dominant being organizational leadership and management; management of nutrition-related disease conditions; nutrition and health promotion; research; and advocacy, communication, and awareness creation. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that nutrition and dietetics challenges in Uganda are multiple and multifaceted; HN/HND graduates are employed in different sectors, provide nutrition-specific and sensitive services in a multisectoral environment, and are expected to possess a variety of knowledge and skills. However, graduates have knowledge and skills gaps in some of the areas they are expected to exhibit competency. We recommend using these findings as a basis for obtaining stakeholder consensus on the key competencies that should be exhibited by all HN/HND graduates in Uganda; developing a HN/HND competency-based education model and a national HN/HND training and practice standard; and undertaking further research to understand the quality and relevancy of HN/HND curricula to Uganda’s job market requirements. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06090-3. BioMed Central 2021-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7839220/ /pubmed/33504348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06090-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kikomeko, Peterson Kato
Ochola, Sophie
Kaaya, Archileo N.
Ogada, Irene
Birungi, Tracy Lukiya
Nakitto, Peace
Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
title Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
title_full Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
title_fullStr Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
title_full_unstemmed Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
title_short Stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in Uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
title_sort stakeholders’ perceptions of the nutrition and dietetics needs and the requisite professional competencies in uganda: a cross-sectional mixed methods study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33504348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06090-3
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