Healthcare Provider Education
Educating Healthcare Providers—the “DIET” Program
Research shows that medical providers are among the most important health messengers and that patients are more likely to adopt new behaviors when instructed to do so by their health practitioners. In a 1995 study, physicians identified lack of time, patient noncompliance, inadequate teaching materials and lack of knowledge and training about counseling as important barriers to adequately addressing obesity with their patients (1). In fact, in another survey sent to Northeast Ohio healthcare providers in 2003, nearly 43% of respondents reported a lack of training to adequately treat overweight pediatric patients (2).
Recognizing these challenges, Steps to a Healthier Cleveland has partnered with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) to develop an innovative and effective program that equips local healthcare providers with the best and most current tools available to prevent and manage childhood obesity and other related chronic diseases.
The Steps supported CCBH “DIET” Program – “Dietitians Involved in Education & Training” – provides professional assistance for healthcare providers with children and weight management. The program targets all providers in the healthcare continuum:
- physicians
- residents
- medical assistants
- nurses
- dietitians
- social workers
- community health workers
- students
Healthcare providers are provided with a one-hour training session focusing on prevention and management of childhood obesity with a strong concentration on addressing the risk factors of poor nutrition and physical inactivity. The training sessions include the most current best practices in assessment and the latest motivational interviewing techniques which can facilitate positive behavior modifications. The goal of the training is to assist healthcare providers in assessing their patients’ readiness to adapt and self monitor realistic healthy lifestyle goals.
Often, the one-hour training is tailored to address the links between childhood obesity and diabetes. For these sessions, the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland partners with the “DIET” program to present on current diabetes guidelines, resources and educational materials.
All healthcare providers that complete the CCBH “DIET” training receive a unique complementary toolkit to take back to their practices. The toolkit was specifically designed to respond to local healthcare providers’ identified need for easily accessible and culturally appropriate educational materials and evidence-based resources. The toolkit is continually updated and adapted to represent local needs and resources. It is organized according to Steps to a Healthier Cleveland’s six focus areas: obesity, diabetes and asthma (chronic diseases), and physical activity, nutrition and tobacco prevention and cessation (related risk factors). It is provided as a hard copy expandable file case and as a mini CD, and all of its contents are reproducible.
Among the tools provided in the kit are nutrition, physical activity and tobacco prescription pads. The pads feature easy-to-understand picture icons that healthcare providers can use to recommend healthy lifestyle practices to patients and their families.
(1) Kushner RF. (1995). Barriers to providing nutrition counseling by physicians: a survey of primary care practitioners. Preventive Medicine, 24:546–552.
(2) Atkinson C, Halko M. (2003). Childhood Obesity Survey of Healthcare Professionals in Cuyahoga County and administered through the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. Results available at: www.ccbh.net.
