Page 242 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

education programs include competencies to prepare future practitioners for their roles in nutrition education,
health promotion, and disease prevention. These include the ability to plan and deliver professional oral and
written learning scenarios using current information technology while integrating appropriate planned
education and behavior change theories to facilitate knowledge and skill application. Teaching is a major job
responsibility of most areas of nutrition including clinical, community, education, consultation, management,
and private practice.1,2 Healthcare facilities accredited by the Joint Commission, the largest healthcare
accrediting body in the United States, are required to provide the patient, family, or significant others with
education specific to their needs along with medical record documentation.3

The primary goal of teaching is to promote learning. Learning activities occur in both individual and group
scenarios. Learning locations comprise a wide array of informal and formal settings that may include inpatient
or outpatient, acute or long term, assisted living and home care, public health and government programs, and
health fairs and community events. Other settings may include academia, work sites, schools, health clubs,
supermarkets, wellness promotion, the Internet, or other media outreach.

The learning audience comprises a wide variety of learners. These may include patients, clients, employees,
parents, caregivers and family members, nurses and physicians, students, interns and residents, teachers,
paraprofessionals, therapists, health department personnel, athletes, consumers, food service personnel, and
the public.3

Managers provide learning to employees through training, continuing education, and staff development.
Human resource orientation enables employees to know their job responsibilities. An employee’s on-the-job
performance must meet standards acceptable to the organization and requires periodic updating of knowledge
and skills. It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that training needs are recognized and met. The
fact that an employee knows proper procedures, but may not always follow them, is an indication of the
difficulty involved in getting a person to change.4

Nutrition educators teach clients and patients about normal nutrition and preventive health strategies as
well as diet modifications necessitated by such medical problems as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. One
day an educator may be teaching a 50-year-old man about fatty acids and cholesterol in foods, the next day
teaching an 18-year-old pregnant woman about prenatal nutrition, and the next day teaching an athlete about
nutritional needs before, during, and after exercise. Nutrition education cannot improve a person’s health
unless the results influence the purchase and consumption of foods and beverages and change eating
behaviors.

The terms “teaching” and “learning” have different meanings. Some people have the mistaken notion that if
they teach something, the audience or individual learns automatically and will transfer the learning to
appropriate situations. An educator may explain to a pregnant woman about the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) ChooseMyPlate food guide, tell her why it is important to use it in menu planning, and
give her printed handouts. A passive learner may not participate in the learning. Individuals may be unable to
connect the content of the learning process as it does not use their own food choices or menu planning.
Knowledge alone cannot guarantee a change in food choices.

Teaching factual information should not be mistaken for education. The term “teaching” suggests the
educator’s assessment of the need for knowledge and the use of techniques to transfer knowledge to another
person. Education is the process of imparting or acquiring knowledge or skills in the context of the person’s

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