A Public Health Nutritionist Dietician - 1435 Words

Introduction This essay describes a position for a Public Health Nutritionist Dietician working in Primary Health Care Outreach in West Arnhem Maningrida, Darwin and was advertised by the Northern Territory Government Department of Health position. The position of a Public Health Nutritionist Dietician working in rural or remote areas can be associated with many issues including working remotely and practising cultural safety. Dietician’s working in rural or remote locations are more likely to leave their jobs due to personal reasons, poor management and lack of dietetic staff, therefore increasing the workload of rural dieticians. Practising cultural safety has greater importance when working in rural areas due to the larger population†¦show more content†¦These personal reasons included lifestyle, personal issues, proximity to family and friends and social isolation. This is a welfare state issue as these health professionals personal issues such as social isolation are mental h ealth issues which could lead to impact on these employees with depression for example (Vogel, 2013; Brown, Williams Capra, 2010; Brown, Mitchell, Williams, Macdonald-Wicks, Capra, 2011). Poor management from direct line managers was also frequently linked to causing distress to dieticians due a lack of professional support and development. The study explained the low quality of management may be due to many managers having no background in allied health, reporting they did not understand or respect the dieticians’ needs. This issue relates to economic rationalism as the government system is not employing managers of rural dieticians to effectively support the rural health system (Brown, Williams, Capra, 2010; Brown, Mitchell, Williams, Macdonald-Wicks, Capra, 2011). Rural dietician’s workload compared dieticians working in the metropolitan is generally larger due to a lack of staff backfill. The Better Health Commission recommends the ratio of dieticians to the p atient population to be 14:1000 000, however the ratio is 12.4:100 000 in rural Australia which places a greater load of work onto the dietician, a Workforce Issues as work related stress in dieticians should be prevented (Wilson