A Delphi consensus study to determine the workload components and activity standards of dietitians in South Africa's central and tertiary public hospitals

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dc.contributor.author Naicker, Vertharani Nolene
dc.contributor.author Naidoo, Keshan
dc.contributor.author Muchiri, Jane Wanjiku
dc.contributor.author Legodi, Modiehi Heather
dc.date.accessioned 2024-04-11T07:57:51Z
dc.date.available 2024-04-11T07:57:51Z
dc.date.issued 2024-01
dc.description AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS : The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to these being the property of the South African Department of Health but are available from VNN on reasonable request and with permission and approval from the South African Department of Health and its corresponding research committees at provincial and hospital level. en_US
dc.description.abstract BACKGROUND : The global Human Resources for Health (HRH) strategy emphasizes the need to invest in HRH to meet population needs and improve the provision of quality health care services. In South Africa, dietitians are recognized as registered professionals who provide nutrition services. In this paper, we used 2 key steps (3 and 4) of the eight step World Health Organization (WHO) Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) methodology to determine the workload components and activity standards for dietitians at South African central and tertiary public hospitals. METHODS : All (9) provincial nutrition managers (phase one) and 21 out of a total 22 head dietitians at central and tertiary public hospitals (phase two) participated in an online survey. In phase one, the provincial managers provided the job descriptions (JDs) of dietitians in their provinces, and the JDs were analyzed to determine the baseline workload components. In phase two, dietitians participated in a multi-stage Delphi process to reach consensus on workload components and activity standards. Consensus was deemed to be agreement of 70% or more, while the median of participants’ responses was used to obtain consensus on the activity standards. RESULTS : The JDs of dietitians were a useful baseline for the consensus exercise as there were no other suitable source documents. The response rate was 100% for all three rounds of the Delphi survey. Dietitians reached agreement (consensus ≥ 70%) on 92% of proposed workload components and activity standards. Following the removal of duplicate and certain administrative activities, a total of 15 health, 15 support and 15 additional service activities with aligned activity standards resulted from the consensus exercise. CONCLUSION : The Delphi technique was a suitable method for reaching agreement on workload components and activity standards for dietitians at South African central and tertiary public hospitals. The findings from this study can now be used to compile a standardized list of workload components and activity standards and ultimately to determine dietetic staffing needs for the central and tertiary public hospital level of care. en_US
dc.description.department Human Nutrition en_US
dc.description.librarian hj2024 en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-being en_US
dc.description.uri https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com en_US
dc.identifier.citation Naicker, V.N., Naidoo, K., Muchiri, J.W. et al. A Delphi consensus study to determine the workload components and activity standards of dietitians in South Africa’s central and tertiary public hospitals. Human Resources for Health 22, 4 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-023-00883-9. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 1478-4491 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.1186/s12960-023-00883-9
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/95479
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher BMC en_US
dc.rights © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. en_US
dc.subject Human resources for health (HRH) en_US
dc.subject Activity standards en_US
dc.subject Delphi en_US
dc.subject Dietitian en_US
dc.subject Hospitals en_US
dc.subject South Africa (SA) en_US
dc.subject Staffing need en_US
dc.subject Workload components en_US
dc.subject Workload indicators en_US
dc.subject SDG-03: Good health and well-being en_US
dc.title A Delphi consensus study to determine the workload components and activity standards of dietitians in South Africa's central and tertiary public hospitals en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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