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Nutrition Care Process to Empower Dieticians - Interview With Dr. Esther Myers at ISPEN 2019

Nutrition Care Process to Empower Dieticians - Interview With Dr. Esther Myers at ISPEN 2019

by Mary Selvaraj on Jul 13 2019 6:04 PM
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Highlights:
  • On behalf of ISPEN 2019, Medindia interviewed Dr. Esther Myers on her work in the implementation of the Nutrition Care Process (NCP)
  • NCP is the practice of therapeutic nutrition with an evidence-based approach to ensure optimal nutrition and health
  • Dr. Esther Myers has focused on obesity and weight management, and the role of dieticians in improving their outcomes
Nutritional Care Process (NCP) and terminology are being implemented in India with added zeal. The NCP provides dieticians with a framework for decision making concerning their clients or patients. These guidelines help in making their care more effective.
There is greater importance of the role of dieticians in all care settings, and Dr. Esther Myers is the pioneer in this area.

Dr. Esther Myers, Ph.D, RDN, FAND, Nutrition Care Professionals LLC, EF Myers Consulting Trenton, Illinois, USA has been the President of International Affiliate of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (IAAND) in 2018-2019. Dr. Myers is Adjunct Faculty for North Dakota State University. She is also CEO of EF Myers Consulting and Director of Nutrition Care Professionals, Ltd.

Dr. Esther Myers

She has also done work on Diabetes in India - Nutrition Guidelines study. She has worked with the obese in a study on the role of dietitians in improving outcomes.

On behalf of ISPEN 2019, Medindia interviewed Dr. Esther Myers to throw light on this new concept of Nutrition Care Process (NCP) in empowering dieticians.

Q. What are your areas of interests in diet and nutrition?

A. Most of the work that I have done recently has been with dieticians in terms of improving practice. For example, I am looking at how dieticians can more effectively implement the Nutritional Care Process (NCP) and document the care we provide to patients, as well as the outcomes we can expect. Because I believe only when we fully document what we have done, can we know whether or not it was useful and improve our care.

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Q. You have researched ‘Diabetes in India Nutrition Guidelines’ or DING study. Please tell us about the main findings of this important study?

A. One of the main things we were looking at with, the DING study, the dieticians and Nutritional Guidelines Study in India was whether or not we would be able to implement the evidence-based guidelines in dietician’s practice in India. The outcome from the study showed us that it was very difficult for the dieticians actually to implement the guidelines in the intervention group and there are barriers in practice in India and elsewhere, but the additional barriers here need to be addressed before the guidelines could be fully implemented.

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Q. Do you think things have improved than what it was before?

A. I am sure that as the health care environment continues to change, the role of dieticians will change as well. There has been an increased emphasis on educating dieticians and providing higher-level training on clinical nutrition, and these things will all position the dieticians to be in a better position to be able to implement guidelines when the time comes.

Q. The incidence of diabetes is increasing, and diet plays an important role - What would be your advice on how to control it?

A. I think dieticians are uniquely positioned to help clients control diabetes. Because dietician is the one who can look at how the patient/client regularly eats, what his/her lifestyle is like. The dietician will then be able to tailor recommendations to help that person reach the right balance of energy intake, carbohydrate intake as well as physical activity. We already know that physical exercise and diet go hand in hand. So, the dietician is ideally positioned to help the clients figure out what they can do to optimize their health.

Q. Can you please elaborate on your innovative approach to obesity and weight management?

A. This is about the study with the Insurance company in North Carolina, Blue Cross Blue Shield. We looked at whether or not if the insurance company funded dieticians to see patients if their outcomes will be better than just send them tailored health promotion material in the mail. The result of the study was that the dieticians were a very cost-effective way to help the patients and the clients and were able to achieve better weight outcomes. The actual cost per person to have a dietician service available was very very low.

Q. How can we collaborate with International associations to improve our health in India?

A. I am excited about the possibility of incorporating the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) and the terminology in the dieticians’ practice as a way for dieticians to practice more effectively. And so, if there are ways to collaborate in terms of providing training programs or either quality improvement types of collaborative or some way the dieticians can systematically evaluate how they practice and then improve their outcomes.

Source-Medindia


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