The role of the dietitian in the hospital team. The current situation in Poland in relation to the needs of society

Helisz, Paulina, Gwioździk, Weronika, Kaczmarczyk, Natalia, Całyniuk, Beata, Kujawińska, Maria, Grajek, Mateusz, Krupa-Kotara, Karolina. The role of the dietitian in the hospital team. The current situation in Poland in relation to the needs of society. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2022;12(10):178-188. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2022.12.10.021

https://apcz.umk.pl/JEHS/article/view/40407

https://zenodo.org/record/7188271

The journal has had 40 points in Ministry of Education and Science of Poland parametric evaluation. Annex to the announcement of the Minister of Education and Science of December 21, 2021. No. 32343.

Has a Journal's Unique Identifier: 201159. Scientific disciplines assigned: Physical Culture Sciences (Field of Medical sciences and health sciences); Health Sciences (Field of Medical Sciences and Health Sciences).

Punkty Ministerialne z 2019 - aktualny rok 40 punktów. Załącznik do komunikatu Ministra Edukacji i Nauki z dnia 21 grudnia 2021 r. Lp. 32343. Posiada Unikatowy Identyfikator Czasopisma: 201159.

Przypisane dyscypliny naukowe: Nauki o kulturze fizycznej (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu); Nauki o zdrowiu (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu).

© The Authors 2022;

This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland

Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike.

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

Received: 25.09.2022. Revised: 30.09.2022. Accepted: 12.10.2022.

The role of the dietitian in the hospital team. The current situation in Poland in relation to the needs of society

Paulina Helisz ¹, Weronika Gwioździk ¹, Natalia Kaczmarczyk ², Beata Całyniuk ², Maria Kujawińska ², Mateusz Grajek ³ and Karolina Krupa-Kotara ^1,*

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 41-902 Bytom, Poland; paulinahelisz@gmail.com, w.gwiozdzik@wp.pl,; kkrupa@sum.edu.pl

² Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 41-808 Zabrze, Poland nkaczmarczyk191@gmail.com; marysia.kujawinska@gmail.com; bcalyniuk@sum.edu.pl  

³ Department of Public Health, Department of Public Health Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences in Bytom, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 41-902 Bytom, Poland. mgrajek@sum.edu.pl 

* Correspondence: kkrupa@sum.edu.pl 

Abstract: (1)Background: Nutrition that is adequate to the patient’s health status is a component of co-determining factors in improving the patient’s health. Moreover, appropriate activities of a dietician, such as assessing the nutritional status or educating patients, are counted among the determinants conditioning the effectiveness of the conducted treatment. The number of employed dietitians in hospitals is low, which results in 76-740 patients per one specialist, which in turn makes effective education impossible. The aim of this study was to compare the duties of dietitians working in Polish hospitals in relation to the needs of the society. (2) Material and methods: The research tool consisted of two original, anonymous questionnaires, addressed to the Polish public and to active dietitians. The analysis of results was based on 595 questionnaire results, including 93 from nutritionists. (3)Results: Of the respondents who were admitted to the hospital ward, 83.3% had no contact with a nutritionist (N=347). The surveyed dietitians most often declared that there were two dietitians working at the health care provider employing them, with the smallest number being 1 and the largest number being 55. Only one in three respondents received dietary recommendations upon discharge from the hospital (N=133; 32.1%). Nearly half of dietitians do not prepare menus (48.4%). According to the public, a dietitian should be involved in nutritional counseling, developing menus for the hospital kitchen or catering, and nutritional recommendations for patients discharged from the hospital. (4) Conclusions: Dietitians with the right qualifications and specialties, integrated into the health care workforce, can have a huge impact on the proper dietary therapy of patients. As a result, there is a high probability of increasing the effectiveness of treatment, resulting in health service savings and support for the medical community.

Keywords: hospital team, dietitian, role of the dietitian