Training of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists to Improve Culinary Skills and Food Literacy.

OBJECTIVE: To understand if a culinary medicine training program increases food literacy, culinary skills, and knowledge among practicing registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN). METHODS: Prepost study design evaluating pilot test of RDN train-the-trainer curriculum from September, 2019 to January, 2020. RESULTS: On average, results indicate an increase in culinary nutrition skills (mean difference, 6.7 ± 4.4; P < 0.001; range, 10-30) and a significant increase in 5 of the 8 food literacy factors. Through process evaluation, RDNs rated the training as extremely useful to their practice (mean, 4.4 ± 0.3). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Registered dietitian nutritionist participants increased culinary nutrition skills with statistically significant scores across all individual measures. This study describes an RDN training curriculum in culinary medicine across a diverse group of practicing RDNs from a large county health care system. Culinary medicine shows a promising impact on promoting nutrition skills and confidence; however, it warrants further assessment.

National guidelines for sanitation services: Addressing the unmet need of standardizing cleaning practices in tertiary care public health facilities of a developing country.

BACKGROUND: Cleanliness is one of the main reasons for poor satisfaction among the patients and their attendants visiting healthcare facilities. OBJECTIVE: To elevate and transform the sanitation in public sector facilities, a committee was constituted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to study the existing system of Housekeeping in Central Government Hospitals and draft the Guidelines for house-keeping services, since no such literature is available in context of the healthcare facilities in India. METHODS: The committee ascertained the housekeeping services in three tertiary care hospitals of Central Government and simultaneously conducted the literature review of the best practices in hospital sanitation and housekeeping. RESULTS: Formulated national guidelines focus on various aspects of sanitation services in health facilities, i.e., hospital infrastructure; organization of sanitation services; human resource requirements; qualification, experience and training needs of sanitation staff; roles and responsibilities of different personnel; risk categorization of hospital areas; mechanized cleaning; cleaning agents; cleaning standards and standard operating procedures; effective supervision and monitoring; procurement of these services, etc. CONCLUSION: Formulated guidelines can be adopted by developing countries aiming for standardizing cleaning practices in public health facilities.