Assessment of the Dietitian Experts’ Role in Khartoum State Hospitals-Sudan

Background: Nutrition is a major lifestyle factor in health promotion, prevention and treatment of several population health issues [1]. There are some published studies that show the benefits associated with nutrition interventions provided by dietitians but there is still a need for studies that go beyond the intervention approach to explore these roles teams [2]. In this study out of a total of 227 dietitians in Khartoum state government hospitals, only 42 participated in the electronic questionnaire. The majority (31.0%) of these dietitians were aged between 40-49 years with 93.10% experienced between 6-10 years, Also, most of them (52.4%) have post-graduate studies and have a good awareness of their field of specialization. However, they pointed out that there are some obstacles to work, such as working components (31.1%).

Objectives: The main ejective of this study was to assess the dietitian experts’ role in Khartoum hospital state, The specific objectives was to assess the dietitians role, services provided, dietitian knowledge in Khartoum hospitals state, to assess the level of performance of dietitian experts and their specializations, and whether there are any impediments to doing so.

Study design (method used): The researcher(s) adopted a cross-sectional descriptive analytical study. An online electronic questionnaire was sent to a dietitians in government hospitals in Khartoum state in the period from September 18 to October 18, 2021, as a data collection tool to identify the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, services provided, and Knowledge assessment After the approval of the head of the department at the Ministry of Health, the electronic questionnaire was sent to the dietitians in hospitals through Google, then the data was analyzed using the SPSS program and placed in the tables.

Sampling: The questionnaire targeted all dietitians experts in government hospitals in Khartoum state (227) but the number that completed the questionnaire was 42.

Problem Statement: There are not many studies that explain the role and importance of dietitian in hospitals and some performance problems, so I wanted to shed light on these aspects.

Hypotheses: Due to my work for several years in Khartoum state hospitals, I expect that the nutritionist will have the scientific information that would enable them to perform, but they lack the possibility of having work tools to help that.

Setting: The research was conducted in the state of Khartoum, which is the capital of Sudan and inhabited by about 8 million people, representing the various cultures and races in Sudan. The nutrition departments are affiliated to the Hospital Administration at the Ministry of Health, which has close to 54 of government hospitals, which providing service for 24 hours, including general and specialized hospitals [3,4].

Participants: The number of dietitians in government hospitals was approximately 227, and only 42 of them participated in completing the questionnaire.