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.     

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.     

“Helper:” A critical events prompter for unexpected emergencies

Objective. The medical practitioner is faced with an increasing list of protocols and algorithms related to patient care. These recommendations are often difficult to recall, particularly in stressful emergency situations. Using advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) protocols, we built a computer-based system to exhibit precompiled response plans for medical emergencies. To validate the usefulness of this prompting device, we tested application of two of the nine ACLS algorithms, pulseless ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia (Vfib/Vtach) and bradycardia, in a simulated operating room (OR) environment.Methods. The system utilized the software authoring system IconAuthor (Aimtec Inc., Nashua, NH) and a touch-screen monitor (DiamondScan, Microtouch, Methuen, MA). Prior to testing our system, all 39 subjects were given time to familiarize themselves with its operation. Subsequently, all subjects were videotaped while managing a standard simulated anesthetic. During the anesthetic, the subjects were presented with two emergency scenarios, not viewed during the familiarization period. The electrocardiographic (EKG) signals for normal sinus rhythm, ventricular fibrillation, and second-degree heart block were presented. By random selection, the prompter was available to half of the subjects for help with arrhythmia management (experimental group), while to half it was not (control group).Results. A total of 39 subjects completed the exercise. Use of the prompter enabled significantly more subjects to administer correct drugs and dosages during ventricular fibrillation. The correct lidocaine dose was chosen more often by the experimental group than by the control (p=0.015); similarly MgSO₄ was appropriately ordered more often in the experimental group (p=0.003). During second-degree heart block, atropine was correctly followed with a dopamine infusion (p=0.004), and epinephrine infusion was ordered for refractory bradycardia (p=0.002) more often in the experimental than the control group.Conclusions. These data demonstrate the value of a prompting device at the anesthesia workstation. We foresee the use of such prompters in many areas of medicine.This study was made possible by a grant from the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. Results were presented, in part, at the meeting of the STA/SEA Orlando, Florida, January 1994.     

Are Continuity Clinic Patients Less Satisfied When the Resident Is Postcall?

Due to recent public debate and newly imposed resident work hour restrictions, we decided to investigate the relationship of resident call status to their ambulatory patients' satisfaction. Resident continuity clinic patients were asked to rate their level of satisfaction on a 10-point Likert-type scale. Using multiple regression approaches, these data were then assessed as a function of resident call status. We found that in 646 patient encounters, patient satisfaction scores were significantly less when the resident was postcall, 8.99 ± 1.8, than when not postcall, 9.31 ± 1.3. We herein discuss etiologies and implications of these findings for both patient care and medical education.