A qualitative study for nutrition counseling of four hospitals in Taipei City and County

This study documents unobtrusive observations of a nutritional counseling research series conducted in 1999 and 2000. To understand the [means/methods?] and contents of nutrition counseling and improve the quality of this service, we collected operational information from all hospitals hiring dietitians in Taipei City (13 public and 15 private hospitals) and County (6 public and 9 private hospitals). Moreover, we observed and documented all activities during 4 counseling sessions in 2 public and 2 private hospitals in Taipei City and County. All conversations and activities were tape-recorded and analyzed for 3 major facets of dietitians, patients, and environmental aspects. We found that the contents of the dietary counseling were professional and consistent for dietitians equipped with [profound/adequate?] knowledge. However, consultation and communication skills need to be more client-centered, which can help improve the efficacy. Patients' attitudes toward their illnesses affect their motivations for c hanging dietary behaviors. Since nutritional counseling is an important health educational service, we need to develop standardized counseling procedures, reimbursement or payment systems, and a medical chart recording system in the future. Nutritional counseling shares a similar reality with the rest of the medical system, i.e., the success of the operation of nutrition counseling clinics is highly determined by the medical systems including health insurance reimbursement, hospital management, social recognition, and fee-charging systems. Therefore, we need to examine and improve the quality of nutritional counseling clinics in order to provide better services to help patients in need.