Influence of Cooking Workshops on Cooking Skills and Knowledge among Children Attending Summer Day Camps.

This study aimed to measure the influence of the Chefs in Action program (3 cooking workshops) on cooking skills, nutrition knowledge, and attitudes towards healthy eating in children attending summer day camps and compare it with a single cooking workshop. Groups of children (8-12 years) were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 25) or to 1 of 3 comparison groups performing a single workshop (group 1, n = 16; group 2, n = 36; group 3, n = 24). Two dietitians evaluated cooking skills during the workshops. Nutrition knowledge and attitudes towards healthy eating were assessed before and after the intervention. No improvement in cooking skills was observed in the intervention group (P = 0.25). The intervention group's cooking skills score was significantly higher than comparison group 1 (P < 0.001). Nutrition knowledge was significantly improved in the intervention group and the comparison group 3 (P < 0.0001) but no effect on attitudes towards healthy eating was observed (Pgroup × time = 0.36). In conclusion, the Chefs in Action program positively impacted nutrition knowledge in children. The results also suggest that the type of recipe may influence nutrition knowledge and cooking skills. Further studies are needed to better assess the degree of difficulty required in cooking workshop recipes to improve cooking skills in children.

Exploring clinical dietitians' day-to-day practice through the critical incident technique.

This exploratory study was related to dietitians' day-to-day clinical practice using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). The method consisted of asking 25 clinical dietitians to describe events which had occurred in their professional practice that they judged to be either favorable or unfavorable. Results showed that positive incidents were mostly associated with: being involved with patients, their families, physicians and nurses; with their impact on patients' quality of life and health; and with the recognition of the importance of the role of dietitians. Negative incidents were associated with being involved with the same factors, as well as with speech and language specialists. They were also linked to interpersonal and role conflicts, complaints and lack of communication.The relevance for dietitians of developing communication, debating and negotiation skills was highlighted. The classification scheme used to categorize data would be useful in conducting a repeat of the study on a larger sample.