Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/56767

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/J.HighEdu.18.125

Recently, the opportunity for registered dietitians to provide dietary guidance through talks has increased as part of the national effort for the prevention and treatment of lifestyle-related diseases. With this, there has been a greater demand for a move from traditional knowledge-based education in the curriculum of registered dietitian training institutions toward practical education regarding human skills, including interpersonal skills. With the aim of creating basic documentation for the development of an effective education system, in this study we performed an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) on students just prior to their visit to hospitals for off-campus practical training and evaluated their ability to integrate the knowledge and skills obtained from various subjects. In October 2009, we performed an OSCE on 3 problems for 90 third-year students from the registered dietitian course at “T” college in Sapporo city. Using a simulated patient (SP), they performed medical interviews, anthropometric measurements and an interview on dietary intake for fi ve minutes each. Two evaluators graded the skill level and provided feedback to the students regarding both their strengths and potential future problem areas. The medical interview skills of the SP were also evaluated. The average scores from the 2 evaluators were 11.2±2.36 (maximum 20) for the medical interview technique, 3.8±1.39 (maximum 10) for anthropometric measurement skill and 7.4±2.94 (maximum 21) for the interviews on dietary intake. The scores for the recently introduced elements, medical interview technique and anthropometric measurement skills, were found to be signifi cantly lower than those in previous studies, whereas that for the conventional interviews on dietary intake was similar to those of previous studies. In the medical interview examination, the score for the SP was very good at 19.0±1.64 (maximum 22); however, a systematic error was observed in that there was a large difference between the scores from the 2 evaluators. This result suggests that a problem exists in both the evaluation method and the objectivity of the evaluation in this fi eld. For practical dietary education to advance smoothly both on and off campus, specialized staff need to strengthen cooperation to draft a more effective educational program and develop an objective evaluation system.