Post contributed by Katia Zogg, SNDA Public Policy Committee Leader
The role of dietitians in health care is incredibly important, especially when it comes to malnutrition in hospitals and how intervention by a registered dietitian nutritionist can improve the outcomes for malnourished patients. On Monday, March 11th over 200 registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN), nutrition and dietetic technicians, registered (NDTR), and dietetic interns gathered at the state capitol for the annual California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Public Policy Workshop to advocate for the profession. This year, dietitians spoke to lawmakers about the benefits of RDN intervention for malnutrition and the importance of professional licensure. Clinical malnutrition is becoming an increasingly worrisome concern and it is vital that malnutrition be diagnosed and addressed in a timely manner. Malnutrition can decrease quality of life, lead to longer hospital stays, increase costs to the patient, hospital, and insurance companies, impact recovery time, and increase the risk of death. RDNs work together with the health care team to ensure that patients receive the nutrition they need. Weight history, dietary intake, a nutrition-focused physical examination, and lab values are evaluated by RDNs to assess for malnutrition. A nutrition-focused physical exam involves checking hand grip strength, fluid accumulation, and loss of muscle and body fat. RDNs are educated and trained to address the issue of malnutrition, but in order to make it more effective, licensure protection is needed. Currently in California, RDNs have title protection with no formal state regulation. Title protection provides very little protection to consumers, while licensure would provide much better consumer protection and allow consumers to find and access qualified professionals who can provide ethical and safe nutrition therapy. Additionally, licensure would also ensure that standards of professional competencies are met in order to be reimbursed for the provision of nutrition care services. Basically, licensure would provide assurance to government and health insurance companies so that the nutrition services provided by RDNs can be reimbursed. The California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is working on proposing a consumer safety bill in 2020-2021 for RDN licensure in California. For more information about professional licensure from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, click here. You can also view an interactive map of other state’s RDN licensure protection. And you can click here to learn more about the CA legislative steps to licensing. Resources: https://www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/healthy-eating/what-is-malnutrition https://www.eatrightpro.org/advocacy/licensure/professional-regulation-of-dietitians#importance
0 Comments
Post contributed by Katia Zogg, SNDA Public Policy Committee Leader
The SFSU Health Promotion and Wellness Center is offering up some exciting nutrition related resources! Through campus health initiatives and programming, the Health Promotion and Wellness Center (HPWC) provides health education for the SF State community. In addition to nutrition, the HPWC offers other health resources that focus on alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, sexual health, men’s health, sexual violence prevention, and mental health. The HPWC nutrition resources include:
I had the opportunity to ask questions of Danielle Lundstrom, the new Nutrition Health Educator/Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at SF State, to learn more about her journey and to see how she is utilizing her background as a Registered Dietitian to help promote wellness for the students on campus. See below!
http://wellness.sfsu.edu/home Post contributed by Katia Zogg, SNDA Public Policy Committee Leader
As I was meal prepping over the weekend to get ready for my final semester at San Francisco State University, I started to think about what I used to eat in grade school and the food and physical activity environment I was provided. I attended public school in the 1990’s and have very fond memories of my grade school years; I remember eating lunches from home and always having plenty of recess breaks. Today, however, it seems the focus on kids’ health in schools has shifted significantly, but I was happy to read recently about Action for Healthy Kids. Action for Health Kids (AFHK) is an awesome initiative and it gave me hope for the future health of our youth. Created in 2002, AFHK is a national and state integrated initiative and their focus is centered around making changes in the school environment to address childhood obesity, physical inactivity, and undernourishment. Their mission is “To mobilize school professionals, families and communities to take actions that lead to healthy eating, physical activity and healthier schools where kids thrive”. Decreases in funding have limited the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), local sponsors, and state agencies to deliver nutrition education adequately to children. Additionally, funding for nutrition education through child nutrition programs is narrow and limited, even though the number of participants in these programs continues to grow. With AFHK, however, changes in the school environment can be made in order to combat obesity and undernourishment and promote active and healthy behaviors in kids. Through donations, volunteers, partnerships, and fundraising, AFHK has brought grants, programs, and physical activity and nutrition lessons to over 29,000 schools. The number of volunteers has grown from 700 in 2002 to over 120,000 in 2017 - and that number is still growing! They have partnered with over 75 national organizations and associations that focus on serving and caring for the needs of youths. And they are continuing to develop their programs to meet the needs of school nutrition programs, physical activity programs, and developing, implementing and/or evaluating action plans or policies for school wellness. A short-term goal of AFHK is to increase the amount of health promoting schools. Long-term, AFHK wants to be strongly involved and a leading player in preventing childhood obesity nationwide. AFHK has three main objectives to achieve these goals:
There are many grassroots efforts being made all over the country to promote proper nutrition and physical activity in schools through AFHK teams. Some examples include installing more drinking fountains to increase water intake, creating a school garden with garden education as part of the curriculum, and creating culinary arts electives that focus on cooking, nutrition, gardening, and math. There are many, many more examples that you can read about here. Additionally, AFHK provides tools and resources to schools to help with implementation of health and wellness programs. If you’re interested in getting involved, you can donate, volunteer, and/or fundraise and you can read more about taking action here. I hope this information will inspire and excite you about how small steps and people coming together to meet a common goal can create significant change. Resources: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/index.php Boyle, M.A. (2017). Community nutrition in action: an entrepreneurial approach (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning Action for Healthy Kids (n.d.). Action for Healthy Kids logo [graphic]. http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/index.php |
SDA BlogIf you are interested in contributing to our blog, please contact us at sda.sfstate@gmail.com Archives
April 2019
|