Nutrition education and counselling practices in mother and child health clinics: study amongst nurses

Aims and objectives. To investigate current nutrition counselling practices, knowledge of nutrition and the need for nutrition education by nurses in mother and child health clinics. Background. Nutrition counselling of young families offers a tangible means to implement preventive measures for lifestyle‐related chronic diseases. Nurses in health clinics are at prime position to execute this preventive work, which demands knowledge of current nutrition research as well as skill in counselling. Knowledge is limited regarding the current nutrition counselling practices of nurses and their needs in improving counselling. Design. Descriptive questionnaire survey. Methods. A questionnaire was formulated and sent to nurses in mother and child health clinics (n = 650) nationwide via e‐mail links using a computerised program. Non‐respondents were re‐contacted twice, the final response rate being 50% (n = 327). Results. Nurses considered nutrition counselling an important but challenging task in the clinics. In addition to promotion of health, they had counselled clients in the management of various disorders ranging from constipation to coeliac disease. Variability was noted in the extent to which nurses had adopted nutrition guidelines. As means to improve counselling, better collaboration with both families and healthcare professionals and an increase in resources, including time available for counselling, up‐to‐date educational material and clinical guidelines, as well as increased education in nutrition were suggested. Conclusions. The results demonstrated a need and a readiness amongst nurses to develop nutrition counselling in health clinics. Given the health benefits presumably deriving from nutrition counselling, investments in operational counselling, comprising advancement of both knowledge and skills in the health clinics, are clearly warranted. Relevance to clinical practices. The findings provide important insights into the current clinical practice in health clinics and can be exploited in designing nutrition counselling and in‐service training.