Evaluation of Virtual Nutrition Counseling as a Nutrition Care and Educational Tool
Rubina Hakeem
Nida Azhar
Musarrat Jahan
Structured Supervised Practice (SSP) is an essential component of the undergraduate BS degree program in Human Nutrition and Dietetics because it develops core competencies in entry level dietitians in clinical settings. During Covid-19 pandemic, the Rana Liaquat Ali Khan College of Home Economics (RLAK CHE), Karachi-Pakistan offered virtual internships to the dietetics internes to provide training under the supervision of experienced Dietitians and also save the timeline of their degree program. This study aims to assess the usefulness of virtual clinics in providing understanding of nutrition counselling process to the dietetic internes. Net Promoter Score (NPS) was used to assess the students’ acceptability and overall satisfaction levels of students, Dietitians and clients with these virtual clinics. A total of 37 students participated in this internship program. The results of this study showed that acceptability of the program among students is highly favorable (NPS score=42.9). The students were highly satisfied with the various aspects of virtual clinic program as indicated by the NPS (46.5-75.0). Dietitians were also very satisfied (NPS= 53.85-76.92) with this program and its different aspects including trainees’ responsiveness (SS=76.92), their patients counselling abilities (SS=69.23) and smoothness of the sessions but their satisfaction level was low in sharing their diet plans through screen shares (46.7). The clients’ satisfaction level scored extremely satisfied (65.4-96.2). Our results also revealed the usefulness of these clinics to the students after one year of completion when they employed as nutritionist and dietitian in clinics. It was concluded from this study that these virtual nutrition clinic acts as a useful tool not only for educational purpose for students but also for clients to receive nutritional counseling in various circumstances where physical visit is a problem.
Keywords: Acidophile, Actinobacteria, Multi-drug resistance, Antibacterial activity, Cytotoxicity
