Indiana University

Problem:

Nutrition is integral to the health of the whole child and has a vital role in assuring a bright future for children as health care moves to disease prevention and health promotion. The project advances pediatric nutrition and leadership skills of RDs/nutritionists and health professionals.

Goals and Objectives:

Goal 1: Leadership development in pediatric nutrition Objective 1: Four clinical Pediatric Nutrition Fellowships (4-6 mos) for RDs/ nutritionists yearly Objective 2: Develop and provide four e-learning Clincial Update Practica for RDs/nutritionists yearly (6 mos, yrs 3-5) Goal 2: National or regional continuing education Objective 1: Provide one national or regional continuing education workshop yearly Goal 3: State, regional and national consultation and technical assistance Objective 1: Provide 50 consultations/yr to MCH, Title V, health agencies/organizations with Riley MCH Partners

Methodology:

Core training occurs at Riley Hospital for Children (IN Univ School of Medicine), a 265 bed tertiary care referral hospital, in intensive care nurseries and age related units (infant through teen), developmental pediatric follow up program and other community based clinics. Clinical fellowships (4-6 mos) provide didactic (10 hrs/wk) and guided clinical experiences (30 hrs/wk) that assist RDs/nutritionists in obtaining pediatric nutrition competencies related to infants, children and adolescents and those with special health needs. The last two months provide specialty competencies in one of three areas: (1) newborns in intensive care and high risk infants; (2) children with special health care needs; and (3) adolescents with special health needs including diabetes mellitus. An online clinical update practicum (6 mos) for trainees will be developed and provided for RDs/nutritionists yrs 3-5. Continuing education will be provided for health professionals through national or regional workshops. The range of competency levels includes awareness/ orientation, knowledge, skill development in three areas: (1) nutrition for normal, at risk or high risk newborns, children and adolescents and those with special needs; (2) cultural competence and systems of family-centered health care services in MCH populations; and 3) leadership development.

Coordination:

Learning experiences are coordinated with MCHB programs at Riley Hospital (Comprehensive Developmental Pediatric Care for Infants and Children with Special Health Needs; IN Program for Inborn Errors of Metabolism), two other Riley MCH leadership training programs, and IN State Department of Health, MCH Program. Riley MCH Partners in Leadership Educn, a partnership of three MCHB leadership training programs (Pediatric Nutrition, LEND, LEAH), facilitate state leadership training and consultation.

Evaluation:

Preceptors evaluate fellow's achievement of competencies wkly (informal), monthly and at the end of the fellowship. Fellows with faculty advisor create individual leadership development plans with timelines. Participants in CE workshops for leadership development complete pre/post workshop reflection activities related to their ability to use leadership behaviors and practices. Beliefs related to leadership in health care before and after the workshops and shifts in assumptions are determined.

Experience to Date:

The Leadership Education Program in Pediatric Nutrition is an interdisciplinary center of excellence in leadership education, clinical care and scholarship related to pediatric nutrition. During this reporting period, we accomplished the following: (1) four dietitians/nutritionists completed pediatric nutrition fellowship didactic content and three of these completed clinical fellowship experiences; a third course was developed and piloted with the two e-learning core courses developed during the first and second years for the Clinical Update Practicum in Pediatric Nutrition for four dietitians/nutritionists; (2) a regional interdisciplinary series of six leadership education workshops was developed with three nationally recognized leadership development experts and implemented for predoctoral MCHB trainees; (3) consultations from all faculty included 244 state Title V, 238 national Title V and 723 professional organization consultations (American Dietetic Association, Academy of Pediatrics, NIH eg., Neonatal Research Network for collaborative clinical trials including nutrition).