Influences on the Selection of Dietetics as a Career

Objective To gather information on the factors that influence students’ decisions to choose dietetics as a career.Design Self-administered questionnaires regarding the point at which career decisions were made were completed by 1,695 students in Plan IV/V dietetics programs throughout the United States.Subjects All Plan IV/V dietetics programs that reported greater than five graduates in the academic year 1989 to 1990 were selected from the 1990-1991 Directory of Dietetic Programs for the sample population. Of the 156 schools that were mailed questionnaires, responses were received from 84 schools (54%). Almost 90% of the students were women, 10.6% were men.Statistical analyses Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. A χ² analysis was used to examine the relationship between point of decision and factors that influenced career choice, including people who influence career choice.Results The majority of students (55%) questioned reported making their career decision in college. Students rated interest in nutrition (96.3%) and job enjoyment (93.8%) as factors that were important in their decision to pursue a career in dietetics. College catalogs were rated by 48.3% of the students as being either useful or very useful in helping them make their career selection. With respect to gender differences, women rated a diverse work environment as being very important to their career decision more frequently than men (χ²=15.44, P<.01). Women were more likely than men to rate part-time work opportunities as being very important (χ²=26.75, P<.001); and selected working with people as being very important to their career decision (χ²=17.59, P<.01).Conclusions Findings identified that recruitment strategies need to be audience specific. Because career decision making appears to occur during one of three time frames (high school, college, or work experience), recruitment activities should be developed to specifically target students at these times. One way to increase the exposure of students to the profession of dietetics is for registered dietitians to give guest lectures in introductory college courses and high school upper-class courses in health, home economics, and biology. The use of university/college catalogs as effective marketing tools should also not be underestimated.Data suggest that gender differences exist in factors that influence persons to choose dietetics as a career. To increase the number of men who pursue careers in dietetics, future research should be designed to more fully explore gender differences, so that strategies to recruit more men into the profession can be developed. J Am Diet Assoc. 1997: 97;254–257.     

Naloxone administration following operant training of sucrose/water discrimination in the rat

 The suppression of food intake observed following naloxone administration has often been ascribed to palatability or taste. Unfortunately, many confounds become apparent when attempts are made to isolate such factors in the investigation of ingestive behaviors. In the present study, rats (two groups) were trained to discriminate either a 10% or 5% sucrose solution from water (0.1 ml). These mildly food deprived subjects (95% of free-feeding weight) were trained to press the appropriate lever in a two-lever operant chamber following sampling of sucrose or water; successful responding was reinforced by delivery of a 45 mg grain food pellet. Following random exposure to reduced sucrose concentrations tested under extinction, a sucrose concentration gradient (1.0, 0.5, 0.1, 0.05, 0.01 and 0.005% sucrose solution) was established for both training groups under IP saline administration. Data collected under IP saline were then compared to those collected following random IP naloxone administration (3.0, 1.0, 0.3 and 0.1 mg/kg). No significant differences were observed between the sucrose concentration gradients obtained under saline and those obtained under naloxone, suggesting that the anorectic effect of naloxone is not primarily determined by discrimination of sweet taste. Received: 4 September 1996 / Final version: 16 October 1996     

Genetics: Changing Health Care in the 21st Century

Advances in human genetics are rapidly changing the scope of information and care that can be provided to health care consumers. By the year 2005 it is expected that the entire human genome will be mapped and all 70,000–100,000 genes will be identified. Currently, there are more than 5,000 known single-gene disorders. With the movement of specialized health services into the primary care setting, nurses increasingly will need to be knowledgeable about genetic disorders, screening/diagnostic tests, and implications for health care. In addition, the management of genetic information raises issues of informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, truth telling and disclosure, and nondiscrimination.     

Differential modulation by dopamine of responses evoked by excitatory amino acids in human cortex.

The responses of human neocortical neurons to iontophoretic application of excitatory amino acids and their modulation by dopamine (DA) were studied in vitro. Brain slices were obtained from children undergoing surgery for intractable epilepsy. Application of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) to the slices induced slow depolarizations accompanied by decreased input conductances and sustained action potentials in cortical neurons. Glutamate produced rapid depolarizations and firing with few changes in input conductances. Quisqualate also induced depolarization and firing, but input conductances increased during the rising phase of the membrane depolarization. Iontophoretic application of DA alone produced no change in membrane potential or input conductance. However, when DA was applied in conjunction with the excitatory amino acids, it produced contrasting effects. With either bath application of DA or when iontophoresis of DA preceded application of NMDA, the amplitude of the membrane depolarizations and the number of action potentials were increased, whereas the latency of these responses decreased. In contrast, DA decreased the amplitude of the depolarizations and the number of action potentials evoked by glutamate or quisqualate. The fact that DA affects responses to NMDA and glutamate or quisqualate in opposite directions is of considerable importance to the understanding of cellular mechanisms of neuromodulation and the role of DA in cognitive processing and in epilepsy.