Enhancing the dietary management of general practice patients through collaborative care: perspectives of general practitioners and dietitians
Pomeroy, Sylvia E.M. and Worsley, Anthony 2009, Enhancing the dietary management of general practice patients through collaborative care: perspectives of general practitioners and dietitians, Nutrition and dietetics, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 81-86, doi: 10.1111/j.1747-0080.2009.01333.x.
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Enhancing the dietary management of general practice patients through collaborative care: perspectives of general practitioners and dietitians
Aim: To describe how general practitioners and dietitians view their role in the dietary management of cardiac patients and to provide insights on how to facilitate collaborative care. Methods: Two studies were conducted in Victoria (Australia) 2005–2006. Study One: semi-structured interviews with general practitioners. Study Two: cross-sectional quantitative surveys of general practitioners and dietitians. Study One: texts were analysed using the grounded theory approach. Study Two: frequency analysis was conducted and chi-squared test for independence was used to explore the impact of age, sex and consultation time on the role and reporting scales. Results: Study One: Themes arising from the interviews with 30 general practitioners showed their involvement in dietary management fell into three broad roles: ‘Influencing’, ‘Coordinator’ of referrals and dietary ‘Educator’. They described dietetic education as a process that included dietary assessment, education, application of behavioural change techniques and reporting back to general practitioners. Study Two: Respondents were 248 general practitioners (30% response) and 180 dietitians (60% response). General practitioners' counselling consisted mostly of advocating for dietary change, coordinating dietetic referrals and reinforcing dietitians' recommendations. General practitioners considered dietary education as the role of dietitians. Dietitians reported a much broader role in the management of patients with some overlap with general practitioners' roles. Conclusions: The findings indicate the need: (i) for more structured reporting to ensure general practitioners receive appropriate information to enable them to reinforce dietetic counselling and recommendations; and (ii) to streamline the communication process in order to expedite dietitians' reports to general practitioners.
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