Kent State Interns

When we hear the word “Leader”, what comes to mind? Is it someone you envision on a pedestal with a loud speaker and rigid tone? Is it something you see as dramatic or flashy? Well Polly A. Fitz says leadership is quite the opposite of that glorifying imagine. Her discussion with the ADA House of Delegates explained that “Leadership in a modest sense-ie., leadership with a lower-case “l” is far more prevalent and far more important than most people realize”. What a humbling idea, I thought to myself. Leadership isn't about making the rules, but making things work. Leadership isn't all about curricular intelligence, but emotional intelligence, optimism, and the ability to adapt in different situations and environments. Leadership can be all the complex work that no one wants to claim, but you take with no hesitation. Polly continues her statement and adds that the most effective leaders were not focused on micromanaging others. Effective leaders were encouraging, empathetic, an...

It has been known that many skills and competencies in dietetic educational programs require management-related foundation of knowledge through all scopes of practice. But can basic and traditional management take dietetics all the way? As we fast forward in time we realize that technology is evolving overnight. Training and communication can now optionally be done online with little to no physical contact. Peter Drucker who was known as the father of modern management described the future oriented management as: involved in setting goals, designing organizations and measurement systems. All of these components included training, motivation, communicating with co-workers and receiving and giving feedback. This is the workers revolution! Faulty or ineffective processes will be taken out! Unproductive outcomes will not survive the new age of technology. Why is that? Because not only are we trying to modernize our profession, but we are competing for the best and most well organized faci...

Why does management matter in the field of Dietetics? Management is critical across all advanced practice in dietetics. Whether you are employed in food and nutrition management or in a long-term care clinical setting, familiarity with management coincides with a familiarity with leadership. Advanced- level management is tied to higher salary levels in every area of practice. This occurs because higher salaries are commanded by advanced-level practitioners who assume the risk and rewards of taking action on high-level decision making. Management isn't just about having the last word, it takes into account leadership, strategical thinking, making sound decisions, and challenges the process by solving complex problems.  Management is especially important in dietetics because we- as registered and licensed practitioners- have to stand up for our degree and practice. By making ourselves heard in every facility, other practitioners will respect and appreciate the skill set dietitians b...

Have you received a promotion at your job? The promotion you've been dreaming of to become one of the managers at the facility you have been working in? Shifting into a management position requires a new level of responsibility that may cause you to be anxious or uncertain. But no worries, there are simple things to remember to help boost your confidence and self esteem when moving into management! It all begins with knowing your personality. Managers have an inclination of wanting to improve faulty processes and being able to deal with complex situations. Knowing your personality will help you notice what your strengths are and what skills you can improve on during your journey. All managers have a certain type of leadership skill, but by understanding your personality type, you can further learn your management style and its areas for growth. The second tip to a smooth transition is to focus on your leadership skills. Leadership skills aren't only personal skills, but interp...

What would you define as leadership skills? Today's Dietitian defines them as the following; Collaboration, communication, authentic leadership, vision, innovation. Collaboration is all about teamwork, discussing ideas with the team and then dividing up the tasks, a true collaborative leader will share their knowledge and network with other collaborative leaders (medical professionals). Communication also has a role in networking, and being able to speak to others. Communicating effectively means active listening, and also being able to speak publicly. Being an authentic leader is knowing your own values and desires, being supportive and inspirational to your team and then being able to give and receive feedback. A leader has to have a vision for the future, and again they have to be able to communicate it effectively to their team. A leader also has to be innovative, which can mean taking risks, but it can also refer to gaining knowledge through training and education. These are ...

Have you ever gone to a food service facility and noticed practices that don't align with proper handling of food to avoid cross contamination? This can cause a problem for people in those facilities dining with food allergies. A study in New Zealand aimed to determine how many of the restaurant and cafe managers in one city were familiar with food allergens, had practices to avoid cross contamination, and how confident the manager was in dealing with a situation when it arose. 124 cafes and restaurants had managers or owners that participated, and many of them were able to identify the big 8 allergens, with peanuts being the most recognized food as an allergen source. While only 25% of them were actually trained in food allergies, this quarter of those surveyed were the most likely to have a plan in place for dealing with patrons with allergens and emergency situations such as a patron going into anaphylactic shock. Other large differences included managers versus o...

The food service industry is known for having a high turnover rate. In fact, the annual rate has even at times exceeded 100%, but it is becoming more common for the management high up in the company to have a high turnover rate as compared to other industries. This can greatly affect the company because the unsteadiness of revolving management at this level can cause poor financial decisions and  future strategic planning for the company. In order to determine how a CEO may be compensated for the company doing well, Barber, Ghiselli, & Deale did a study to determine what incomes correlated with their compensation. For small companies, it was gross income, where as for large companies it was net income. The largest companies had a correlation with CEO compensation and stock prices of their company. This implies that the turnover in management at food service companies is related to performance measures and the company's size. The authors also state that turnover at the larg...

Have you ever wondered how a manager goes about making decisions on a day to day basis? In most cases, there may be policies and procedures that they have to follow, but there will be times when they have to make decisions based on their own knowledge, and this is where ethics in management can come into play. Managers hold a job where they must please their employees, stakeholders, and higher management, and this can cause a problem in making the ethic decision. A few examples of ethical decisions within our profession may include; A new food service director deciding to purchase enteral formulas from a friend also in the dietetics profession, rather than a decision made based on budget and needs of the organization. A preceptor for interns not addressing a situation of drug and alcohol use with some of his employees, because he is unsure of where his duties fall in responsibility for those interns actions. Managers in nutrition and dietetics must always follow the code of ethics...

Jung, H. S., & Yoon, H. H. (2014). Antecedents and consequences of employees’ job   stress in a foodservice industry: Focused on emotional labor and turnover       intent.  International Journal of Hospitality Management ,  38 , 84-88. Employee emotional labor and job satisfaction/turnover intent Employees working in the foodservice industry experience issues involving emotional labor. Emotional labor is defined as the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. Workers are expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with individuals such as customers and co-workers. Appropriate emotional labor will lead to positive customer work-of-mouth and repetitive purchases of goods and services. Understanding emotional labor, especially in the foodservice industry, will allow a manager to see changes in their employees as far as how they engage in their work. Emotional labor is often imp...

Byham-Gray, L. (2009). Managing human resources. Nutrition Dimension. 1-24.             http://www.nutrition411.com/pdf/Managing%20Human%20Resources.pdf Mousazadeh, Y., Jannati, A., Jabbari Beiramy, H., AsghariJafarabadi, M., & Ebadi, A.     (2013). Advantages and disadvantages of different methods of hospitals’             downsizing: a narrative systematic review.  Health Promotion      Perspectives ,  3 (2), 276–287. http://doi.org/10.5681/hpp.2013.032 CNM’s experiencing downsizing In an era where efficient management of hospitals is promoted, downsizing is prevalent. Downsizing often leads to clinical positions in health care experiencing far less security than ever before. Downsizing has been defined as a set of activities that reduce the number of employees and results in higher efficiency and cost reduction. Organi...

Furnham, A., & Crump, J. (2015). The Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) and           promotion at work. Psychology, 6 , 1510-1515.    http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.612147 How the MBTI effects job promotion Many traits from MBTI relate to various factors at work including promotion. It has been known for years that personality correlates with performance indicators at work. Unfortunately, studies tend to examine gender differences and promotion rather than personality/ability factors and promotion. Studies have been conducted however on personality correlates of individuals at different levels in an organization, an implication being that those personality traits in some way aided in their promotion. One study found that senior-level managers tend to be less diligent and dutiful than junior managers. A second study looked at 6,000 adult managers and asked these managers questions about how/when they were promoted. ...

Arendt, S. W., & Gregoire, M. B. (2005). Dietetics students perceive themselves as     leaders and report they demonstrate leadership in a variety of      contexts.  Journal of the American Dietetic Association ,  105 (8), 1289-1294. Do surveyed dietetics students feel they have leadership qualities It should come as no surprise that leadership is an essential part in providing exceptional health care, which includes the field of dietetics. In recent years, the American Dietetic Association held its first Leadership meeting to develop future leaders in the field. Currently, the main way to assess student leadership behaviors and actions is through a valid and reliable tool known as the Student-Leadership Practices Inventory. This Inventory includes five practices: 1. Challenging the Process 2. Inspiring a Shared Vision 3. Enabling Others to Act 4. Modeling the Way & 5. Encouraging the Heart. Leadership behaviors can only be obs...

   Every CNM that I have worked with over the past year has gone to at least one FNCE. Why would they take days off from their already busy jobs to go to what many outsiders might consider a vacation. After all, when we here about other conventions, the jokes and debauchery stories start rolling out. Well, this is not the case for FNCE; we network and start building relationships here. Read on. I see six basic "parts" to FNCE. The first and biggest part is the floor exhibits in the main hall. The second consists of breakout sessions where presentations are made on new concepts, research, practice ideas, etc. Basically your summer case study on steroids. The third area is a large portion of the main hall where all the poster presentations are displayed. The fourth is only on Monday morning. This is when all the DPGs and job recruiters have their booths set up. Five and six are behind the scenes in private meetings. One is the AND planning committees deciding on the future ...

Anna G's Outcomes Management project is one example of the current problem with nutrition screening tools. Within just one journal search (AND) and just within the first ten or so articles, I found a bunch of research on all sorts of new and existing screen tools.This would be a good thing for your typical nutrition related Dx, the more points of view the better, but these all showed how inconsistent and misused our current repertoire of nutrition screening tools are. One of the main problems is that nutrition screen tools are clumped in with a number of other admission screening tools; it is easy to see how it can be rushed through by whoever is assigned the task. Ideally, every hospital would have DTRs to do all nutrition screening, but we all know that's a pipe dream.Properly identifying, consistently, whether or not a patient has or is at risk for malnutrition is one of the basics of our job. Within 4 articles and a poster presentation, at least four different screenin...

Try to find this email from the OAND: look in your trash if you have to. Why this matters to you...       We will lose all power to have any actions taken on our issues. You might remember a hint of what was discussed when we had to go to the policy day in Columbus. If they vote to pass this bill, we lose most of our influence to protect what little ground we have gained on issues of our worth, reimbursement, protecting our scope of practice, etc. As it is right now, we have hung on by a thread to maintain the current status of dietitians in these areas. What will happen if this passes? The nurses will still have their board (their priorities don't include us) and we will be tucked away into a small corner of the all encompassing medical board; our voice will not be heard, the priority of our issues will fall way down to the bottom.      Since I first started working on this blog post, a second email from Pat McKnight was sent upgrading the progress...

            The purpose of this study was to identify the leadership characteristics of clinical nutrition managers. The study then associated these characteristics with demographic variables such as, training, length of time as a manager, size of group supervised, income, and participation in advanced practice activities. The study used the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire (LBQ) to measure those characteristics. The leadership qualities identified were leader behavior, leader personal characteristics, and the effect of the leader on the organization’s functioning and culture. The LBQ was administered to the managers and their subordinates. The scores were then compared to give a more complete picture of the manager’s leadership qualities.               The CNMs scored highest in the respectful leadership scores while scoring lowest in the communication leadership scores. This suggests that CNM...

A recent  study to identify and validate CNM responsibilities was published in the Academy journal. The purpose was to establish educational needs for the role, and compare the findings with previous research. The article focused on frequency of involvement with ensuring compliance with regulations and accreditation standards, communicating, monitoring quality assurance and performance improvement, providing clinical expertise, and managing information technology. CNMs (n = 215) answered questions determining how much of their work week was spent on the basic categories of interest listed above: compliance/regulations, communication, clinical expertise and technology. Compliance/regulations/standards : most time was spent on monitoring staff compliance with policies and procedures and identifying nutrition-related regulations. Communication : serving as an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary liaison topped the list followed by developing and maintaining effective communica...

            In an ever-changing landscape of technological, social and political environments the need for environmental scans is as important as ever. The purpose of an environmental scan is to identify emerging issues and trends so that attention can be strategically focused and future opportunities assessed. There are several factors that will have a significant impact on dietetics in the years to come. One issue is a greater need and interest in diet and nutrition in the general public. This growing interest presents many new opportunities for dietitians. However, dietitians must strategically place themselves in order to take advantage of these new opportunities. This rise in interest in nutrition also presents new sources of competition in the form of web-based information and alternative medicine practitioners. Another factor impacting dietetics is the growing population. There is a rise in the cultural and ethnic diversit...