Source: CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIV submitted to
ESTUDIANTE DIETETIO: DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF A SPANISH DIETETIC CURRICULUM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0218706
Grant No.
2009-38422-19865
Project No.
CALE-2009-01198
Proposal No.
2009-01198
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
NJ
Project Start Date
Aug 15, 2009
Project End Date
Aug 14, 2013
Grant Year
2009
Project Director
Kessler, L. A.
Recipient Organization
CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIV
3801 WEST TEMPLE AVENUE
POMONA,CA 91768
Performing Department
Human Nutrition and Food Science
Non Technical Summary
This project will increase the quality of dietetic education primarily by addressing Educational Need Area (a) curricula design. It will also incorporate Educational Need Area (e) furthering student development through experiential learning. These efforts may likely result in a consequential increase in Hispanic dietetic student retention and recruitment (Educational Need Area (f). By improving the education of dietetic students there will be an increase in the number of Registered Dietitians who can effectively provide nutrition services to the Hispanic community to improve their nutritional health and reduce health disparities faced by the Hispanic population. The intended beneficiaries are Spanish speaking patients and their families that our students will interact with when they are in the workplace, our students who will be more marketable and feel more confident with this population and their employers who will have registered dietitians who require less training and can counsel more effectively. This project will develop, pilot and evaluate "Estudiante Dietetio" which is a curricular track supplementing the usual undergraduate dietetic coursework with three approaches: 1.) an additional 6 units of Spanish language and Hispanic culture (one "Spanish mirror" unit added to 6 required courses); 2.) experiential service learning at Spanish speaking sites including the Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC program; and 3.) a student mentoring program. The pilot "Estudiante Dietetio" program will involve 40 students, but if shown to be effective approximately 40 dietetic students will enter the program each academic year. A Spanish-English website will be established and maintained to publicize this project and the service learning efforts of the students The outcome of this project will be an increase in the number of Hispanic and non-Hispanic dietetic students who are culturally competent with Hispanic clients and who can communicate diet information in Spanish with comfort and accuracy. Dietitians who can effectively provide nutrition services to the Hispanic community should help in the achievement of USDA goal 5: Improve the nation's nutritional health and reduce health disparities faced by the Hispanic population.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
90360993020100%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
1. Create a curriculum for training dietetic students which produces dietetic students who are more effective and more comfortable conducting diet counseling in a Spanish only speaking environment as measured by comparing the quality ratings given by Spanish only speaking "actor patients" and by a bilingual RD and by self-reported self-efficacy scores in students from the usual curriculum compared to the new curriculum students. 2. Develop three dietetic training evaluation modules focused on major nutrition issues in the Hispanic population to include obesity, type 2 diabetes, and anemia (in children, pregnant women and the elderly). 3. Evaluate the quality of diet counseling ability as assessed by accuracy and appropriateness of information provided and patient understanding of the information for the 40 students who participate in this pilot "Estudiante Dietetio" program compared to 40 students who are in the existing track. 4. Increase the number of students who perform their service learning at Spanish-only speaking service learning sites from 10% in 2008 to 40% of students by June 2011. 5. Those students who have completed the Spanish track will score at least 20% higher on a cultural competence exam (either a national or state approved exam) compared to those dietetic students who have not completed the Spanish track. 6. Develop an "Estudiente Dietetio" website during the first year of the project to communicate this project to students and the public. 7. Develop and initiate a student directed mentoring program for Hispanic students by June 1, 2010. 8. Increase recruitment and retention of Hispanic students into the dietetic major from the current 16% to 25% by August 31, 2011. 9. Increase the number of Hispanic dietetic majors who graduate from this department from the 2008 amount of 16% of all dietetic majors to at least 25% of all dietetic majors by June 2011.
Project Methods
Year 1(2009)Develop and complete additional six one(1)unit courses. Initiate course approval from Human Nutrition and Food Science Department. Co-PI, Burns-Whitmore who serves on the College's Curriculum committee will take proposed courses through appropriate university channels. Begin development of three evaluation modules for diet counseling. All grant-funded RDs will reach consensus on modules to be used in the evaluation of diet counseling phase. Begin developing the "Estudiante Dietetio" website in English and Spanish. Two bilingual Spanish/English students will develop website. Website will highlight service learning work of students at the Spanish speaking sites and describe the Estudiante Dietetio program to increase its visibility at the University and community level. Begin recruitment efforts informing all current, in-coming and future dietetic majors about Estudiante Dietetio track. Co-Pi,S. Wallace will take the lead in these efforts. She will supervise outreach at the high school level to include College of Agriculture's Peer Ambassadors and Dietetic majors conducting presentations. At college level Dr. Wallace will send e-mails to academic advisors informing them of this opportunity and work with student clubs to notify students. Information will be placed in university publications. PI to Attend the New PD's meeting workshop Year 1(2010) In the spring quarter, offer FN 235 in existing and new "Spanish mirror" format. Initiate mentoring program pairing students in Spanish track with students interested in pursuing the track. Hispanic "Estudiente Dietetio" students will receive funding for their work. Complete the evaluation modules for diet counseling. Summer before year 2: Establish evaluation tools and criteria for cultural competency. These tools will compare the cultural competency and cultural confidence between usual and Estudiante Dietetio students. Year 2(2010)Teach FN 335 and FN 345 in new formats during the fall quarter. Teach FN 328 and FN 346 in new formats during the winter quarter. Put Spanish service learning sites in place. PI will ensure all service learning forms are on file with the University's Center for Service Learning. Maintain website, mentoring and recruitment efforts. Year 2(2011)Teach FN 444 and FN 335 in new formats. Conduct evaluation research comparing quality of diet counseling conducted by usual curriculum track students and those in Estudiante Dietetio track. Begin second cohort of students by teaching FN 235 for second time in new format. Maintain website, mentoring and recruitment efforts. Summer before year 3: Conduct formative evaluation of website. Conduct formative evaluation of mentoring program. Enter data and begin analysis of evaluation results. Year 3(2011)Teach second cohort of FN 335 and FN 345 in fall quarter. Teach second cohort of FN 328 and FN 346 in winter quarter. Maintain website, mentoring and recruitment efforts. Year 3(2012)Teach second cohort FN 355. Maintain website, mentoring and recruitment efforts. Conduct data entry and analysis. Summer end year 3: Analyze data, write results and conclusions for dissemination.

Progress 08/15/09 to 08/14/13

Outputs
Target Audience: We reached several target audiences during the grant time frame. First, we reached 90 undergraduate dietetic students through the four cohorts who entered this curriculum. As of this date, 54 students have completed the Estudiante Dietetica curriculum and the others (n = 36) are still completing the course work which is now funded by the College of Agriculture and will continue to be offered to undergraduate dietetic students.These students gained knowledge, Spanish language capability, confidence and cultural competency. From these 54 students, 40 received additional support through a mentoring component that they had the option to participate in.All the students who complete this curriculumhave this extra training to take with them when they apply for employment, internships and graduate school. We also reached100 Spanish speaking community volunteers who agreed to serve as patients for the Estudiante Dietetico trained dietetic students and their control non Estudiante Dietetic usual trained dietetic students. These community participants volunteered their time and did receive a nutrition counseling session with two dietetic students. We also reached numerous community participants who received nutrition lessons when the Estudiante Dietetico students volunteered in the community providing nutrition lessons and health fairs in Spanish as they practiced their Spanish while providing nturition information. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This curriculum is now a permanent part of the Department of Human Nutrition and Food Science's class offerings and is now fully supported by the College of Agriculture. Major nutrition issues in the Hispanic populationwhich include obesity, type 2 diabetes, and anemia (in children, pregnant women and the elderly) are embedded into the syllabi and learning objectives for the six new classes. FN 345SA class was initiated which is a designated service learning class that is now part of the continuing curriculum and includes the use of approved service learning sites at the Public Health Foundation WIC program, the Orange County Head Start program, the House of Ruth program and the Philadelphia Community Center. Students are consistently choosing to go to a Spanish speaking site as they are now more confident to try and use Spanish. Cultural competence has become part ofthe climate and culture of the entire Human Nutrition and Food Science department and the graduate exit exam began asking a question about cultural competence in Spring 2013 and this type of cultural competency assessment will continue in theDepartment. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Numerous presentations have been given at conferences over the past several years. As well presentations on our campus and local campuses (Cal State LA, Chapman University and Mt. Sac Community college) have been given. Also our College of Agriculture's annual Agricolumn magazine has published information on the Estudiane Dietetico happenings every year since 2009. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1 to create a curriculum for training dietetic students was accomplished. This curriculum is now a permanent part of the Department of Human Nutrition and Food Science's class offerings and isnow supportedby the College of Agriculture. The second part of goal 1 tocreate a curriculum which produces dietetic students who are more effective and more comfortable conducting diet counseling in a Spanish only speaking environment as measured by comparing the quality ratings given by Spanish only speaking "actor patients" and by a bilingual RD and by self-reported self-efficacy scores in students from the usual curriculum compared to the new curriculum students was also completed. The counseling performance as judged by two external bilingual RDs was shown to produce dietetic students who achieved statisticallysignificantly better scores on these areas: establishing counselor and client relationship, assessing the client's dietary concerns, providing diet instructions to the client, using effective communication techniques and helping the client with problem solving and goal setting. The Spanish speaking community patients did not rate the Estudiane Dietetico students as better than the usual dietetic students. However, they rated all the counseling sessions as excellent so there was no statistical difference noted. They did appreciate all the students' nutrition counseling sessions. The students themselves (100%) all agreed that this curriculum increased their professional skills and was an excellent experience.Goal 2 to develop three dietetic training modules focused on major nutrition issues in the Hispanic population to include obesity, type 2 diabetes, and anemia (in children, pregnant women and the elderly) was accomplished and these issues are embedded into the syllabi and learning plans and learning objectives for the six new classes. Goal 3 to evaluate the quality of diet counseling ability as assessed by accuracy and appropriateness of information provided and patient understanding of the information for the 40 students who participate in this pilot "Estudiante Dietetio" program compared to 40 students who are in the existing track was accomplished and reported above as part of Goal 1; it was completed so far on 54 students even higher then the expected 40 students. Goal 4 to Increase the number of students who perform their service learning at Spanish-only speaking service learning sites from 10% in 2008 to 40% of students by June 2011 was accomplished by the introduction of the new FN 345SA class which is a designated service learning class that is now part of the continuing curriculum and includes the use of approved service learning sites at the Public Health Foundation WIC program, the Orange County Head Start program, the House of Ruth program and the PhiladelphiaCommunity Center. Students are consistently choosing to go to a Spanish speaking site as they are now more confident to try and use Spanish. They are assigned in pairs or groups of threes with more fluent students going with less fluent students and helping each other become more acclimated to the Spanish speaking environment.Goal 5 was for those students who have completed the Spanish trackto score at least 20% higher on a cultural competence exam (either a national or state approved exam) compared to those dietetic students who have not completed the Spanish track. A survey tool was developed to analyze cultural competency on three factors: cultural nutrition counseling skills, cultural awareness and cultural food and nutrition counseling knowledge. The difference from pre-test to post-test between the exposed Estudiante students and the usual dietetic students approached but did not reach statistical significance (p= .072). However, the average change for the entire group was significant for all the cultural food and nutrition counseling knowledge competency questions. As well a 62% improvement in self-reported cultural food and nutrition counseling kowledge was found in the Estudiante Dietetico students after their participation in the curriculum.Goal 6 to Develop an "Estudiente Dietetio" website during the first year of the project to communicate this project to students and the public was accomplished.Goal 7 to Develop and initiate a student directed mentoring program for Hispanic students by June 1, 2010 was also completed . Goal 8 to Increase recruitment and retention of Hispanic students into the dietetic major from the current 16% to 25% was accomplished . Goal 9 to Increase the number of Hispanic dietetic majors who graduate from this department from the 2008 amount of 16% of all dietetic majors to at least 25% of all dietetic majors by June 2011 and is currently at 69%.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2013 Citation: Olivares L., Burns-Whitmore B., Kessler L.: Retaining Hispanic dietetic undergraduates through mentoring and professional development. Submitted August 2013 to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2011 Citation: Kessler L., Wallace S., Burns-Whitmore B., Gordon A., Olivares L. : Estudiante de Dietetico: Update on participants and mentoring program. Poster presentation at the NACTA 2011 annual conference in Alberta, Canada in June 2011.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2011 Citation: Kessler L., Burns-Whitmore B., Gordan A., Wallace S. : Estudiante de Dietetico, A Spanish curriculum for dietetic undergraduates: A midway update. Poster presentation at the American Dietetic Associatin annual conference in Sand Diego, CA in September 2011
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2012 Citation: Kessler L., Wallace S., Olivares L., Gordon A., Burns-Whitmore B.: Estudiante de Dietetico: Update and evaluation of mentoring component. Poster presentation at the NACTA 2012 annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin in June 2012.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2011 Citation: Olivares, L. Burns-Whitmore, B., Kessler, L. : Retaining dietetic undergraduate students with diverse backgrounds through a mentoring program in the Estudiante Dietetico project. Presentation at the American Dietetic Association annual conference in San Diego, CA in September 2011
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2012 Citation: Buffington A., Kessler, L. : Missing: Minorities in the Nutrition Profession: Using Mentoring to Retain Latino Students. Presentation at the annual conference of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in Philadelphia, PA in October 2012.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2011 Citation: Olivares L., Kessler L., Burns-Whitmore B.: Development and implementation of a mentoring program for undergraduate dietetic students. Poster presentation at the annual conference of the California Dietetic Association in Pasadena, CA in April 2011.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2011 Citation: Kessler L., Burns-Whitmore B., Gordon A., Wallace S. : Estudiante de Dietetico, a Spanish curriculum for dietetic undergraduates: Report on year 1. Poster presentation at the annual conference of the California Dietetic Association in Pasadena, CA in April 2011.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2013 Citation: Kessler L., Olivares L., Wallace S., Gordon A., Burns-Whitmore B. : Estudiante de Dietetico: Dietetics undergraduate curriculum and mentoring program. Poster presentation at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior annual conference in Portland, Oregon in August 2013.


Progress 08/15/11 to 08/14/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The outputs from the past year include: 1. The completion of the Estudiante de Dietetico curriculum by an additional 19 students; ceremony held for students and their significant others (total n= 44) on June 1, 2012 2. Videotapting of 19 Estudiante de Dietetico students and 19 control usual dietetic students conducting individual nutrition counseling with Hispanic community participants; these videos have been evaluated by 2 external Spanish speaking RDs and the data from the evaluation is currently being entered. 3. Completion of an additional 11 Estudiante de Dietetico students in a mentoring program 4. Completion of cultural competency confidence forms from the 19 graduated Estudiante de Dietetico students and 19 control dietetic students; data being entered PARTICIPANTS: The Principle investigator, L. Kessler supervised all those involved; as well as oversaw the budget. She made sure all data was collected and that the videotaping of the nutrition counseling sessions occurred as planned. She planned and participated in all of the poster presentations. She interviewed nd accepted a third cohort of new Estudiante de Dietetico students (n= 24). She made sure all the Estudiante de Dietetico classes were held. The Co-PI, Burns-Whitmore served as a resource for how to enter all data and edited the poster and powerpoint presentations. Co-PI, Wallace edited all poster and powerpoint presentations and presented the one in June. The Estudiante de Dietetico classes were taught by Aleida Gordon. She taught 6 classes over the year. The nutrition counseling sessions took place at the Garfield Community Center in Pomona. J.Briseno is the Center Coordinator. She assisted in recruiting Spanish speaking Hispanic community participants to serve as patients in the videos. They were each provided a $20 stipend for their time. A graduate student, first Lizett Olivares and after her, Adriana Lopez conducted special mentoring sessions for those Estudiante de Dietetico students who wanted them. Twelve training sessions were held over the last year on topics such as Interviewing, Making effective presentations and resume building. These sessions were helpful to our students to give them additional professional training. Two undergraduate students, E. Green and M. Moran worked on duties such as translation and assisting with the actual taping of the nutrition sessions. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience of dietetic students has reported satisfaction with the mentoring they received. As well there has been an increase in the number of Hispanic dietetic students applying for and getting accepted into dietetic internships from 0 in 2009 to 6 applying and 4 being accepted in 2012. The students who have participated in this special Spanish curriculum report more confidence in their ability to be culturally competent and in their professional skills. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
These students have reported favorable experiences with the curriculum and the additional mentoring they received. Since 2009, there has been a steady increase in the number of Hispanic applicants from our program that have both applied to and been accepted into a Dietetic internship from 0 applying in 2009 to 6 applying and 4 being accepted in 2012. This curriculum has given our students the confidence and extra-experience which has prompted them to apply to dietetic internships more and has made them more competitive which ultimately will increase the number of Hispanic Registered Dietitians.

Publications

  • Olivares, L., Kessler L., Burns-Whitmore, B. (April, 2011). Development and implementation of a mentoring program for undergraduate dietetic students. Presentation at the Annual Conference of the California Dietetic Association, Pasadena, CA. _____________________________________________________________________ ____
  • Kessler, L., Burns-Whitmore, B., Gordon, A., Wallace, S. (April, 2011). Estudiante de Dietetico, a Spanish curriculum for dietetic undergraduates: Report on year 1. Poster presentation at the Annual Conference of the California Dietetic Association, Pasadena, CA. _____________________________________________________________________ ____
  • Kessler, L., Burns-Whitmore, B., Gordon, A., Wallace, S. (September, 2011). Estudiante de Dietetico, A Spanish curriculum for dietetic undergraduates: A midway update. Poster presentation at the American Dietetic Association annual conference, San Diego, CA.
  • _____________________________________________________________________ ____ Olivares, L., Burns-Whitmore, B., Kessler, L. (September, 2011). Retaining dietetic undergraduate students with diverse backgrounds through a mentoring program in the Estudiante Dietetico project. Presentation at the American Dietetic Association annual conference,San Diego, CA _____________________________________________________________________ ___
  • Kessler, L., Wallace, S., Burns-Whitmore, B., Gordon, A., Olivares, L. (June, 2011). Estudiante de Dietetico: Update on participants and mentoring program. Poster presentation at the NACTA 2011 annual conference, Alberta, Canada. _____________________________________________________________________ ____


Progress 08/15/10 to 08/14/11

Outputs
We are on track regarding the accomplishments of our objectives for year 2. Although two of the thirty students from the first cohort of Estudiante Dietetico students decided to not be involved due to other obligations, the remaining 28 are continuing in or have completed the program. We have provided them with a mentoring program as well; which 24 of them elected to participate in also. Ten students have completed all the requirements of the ED curriculum and have received their certificate for completion of Spanish Curriculum for the Nutrition Professional. A graduation ceremony was held on June 3, 2011 to recognize these ten students' accomplishments. Cohort two was selected in January 2011. Cohort two has 23 students (22 female, 1 male) with self-reported ethnicity of 17% white, 58% Hispanic and 25% other. They all enrolled in and passed their first course in this curriculum which was FN 235A- Food and Nutrition Activity, taught in the spring 2011. They participated in a pre and post class knowledge assessment and showed improvement in Spanish nutrition vocabulary. Although those students entering the curriculum not requiring additional Spanish language (52%) scored higher on the pre-class Spanish nutrition vocabulary test, there was no significant difference on the post-test scores for this first course indicating that all students acquired the necessary knowledge. The website continues to post photos of events and can be found at www.csupomona.edu/dietetico. Three students attended the MANRRS conference in March, 2011. Further dissemination of this project was done by the Project Director at a local University in March 2011, a campus event on our campus in May 2011 and during the new and transfer student orientations during summer 2011 to increase student interest for the third cohort. The evaluation plan is being followed. The ten students who completed the curriculum were videotaped conducting nutrition counseling in Spanish with community volunteers who only speak Spanish and control dietetic students who completed the usual curriculum also were videotaped doing counseling with community volunteers who only speak Spanish using an interpreter. These videotaped recordings have been evaluated and rated by two external bilingual Registered dietitians and the data is being analyzed. The community volunteers also evaluated the quality of the nutrition counseling and that data is being entered and will be analyzed. All 6 courses in this curriculum were taught as scheduled. PRODUCTS: PRODUCTS: Six new courses (FN 235A- Nutrition Activity for 1 unit, FN 328A- Culture and Meal Patterns Activity for 1 unit, FN 345A- Nutrition Education for 1 unit, FN 335A- Nutrition through the Life Cycle Activity for 1 unit, FN 443A- Medical Nutrition Therapy Activity for 1 unit and FN 355A- Nutrition Counseling for the Hispanic/Latino Population Activity for 1 unit) were taught. Ten students received their Certificate of Completion for Spanish Curriculum for the Nutrition Professional. A mentoring program was initiated and is being evaluated and will be implemented for cohort 2. The website (www.csupomona.edu.dietetico) continues to be updated. The Evaluation forms and survey tools which were created during summer 2010 have all been used and data entered OUTCOMES: OUTCOMES: The outcome is a curriculum which teaches our dietetic students how to better serve the Hispanic population and provides our students with increased marketability. Our first cohort of Estudiante Dietetico is an ethnically diverse group with 70% (n= 21) self-reporting as Hispanic, 17% (5) as White and the remaining 13%(4) as either Asian or mixed ethnic background. Cohort two is also a diverse group and has 23 students (22 female, 1 male) with self-reported ethnicity of 17% white, 58% Hispanic and 25% other. Many minority students are taking advantage of this curriculum and will earn an additional credential and gain valuable experience thus improving their ability to find a position and to do their work effectively. They have provided favorable comments regarding this program which are listed on the website. Our website, brochure and outreach into the community through school presentations increase the visibility of this program and the nutrition profession to the general community. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Our means of dissemination include a website (www.csupomona.edu/dietetic)which was established in Dec. 2009. Our paid students presented this information during new and transfer student orientations during summer 2011. The project director presented this information at Cal State LA for their Health Professions students. Also she presented this information during Latino Heritage month for our campus. A poster on this project was presented at the NACTA annual conference in June 2011. Two posters were presented at the California Dietetic Association's annual conference in April, 2011. FUTURE INITIATIVES: FUTURE INITIATIVES: In the future we will complete the analysis of the quality of students' videotaped diet counseling sessions using Spanish only speaking community adult volunteers for those students who have completed this curriculum compared to those who have completed our usual curriculum. We will compare the self-reported cultural competency and confidence levels interacting with Hispanic patients for those students completing this curriculum compared to the usual students. We will obtain student feedback on the mentoring program. We will hold an application period and interviews to accept the third cohort of Estudiante Dietetico students by the end of January 2012. We will continue to hold the 6 1-unit courses as listed on the University schedule offering each course at least twice during the grant funding period (once for each cohort). We will seek to have FN 345A class designated as a Service Learning class so we can have these students out in the community even more offering their services to Spanish speakers.

Impacts
IMPACT: 2010/08 TO 2011/08 Seventeen students have already reported favorable experiences with this curriculum. Ten students have completed the curriculum and earned their, Spanish Curriculum for the Nutrition Professional, certificate. This experience will give them increased sensitivity and skills to provide more culturally competent and effective nutrition services to the Hispanic community. This project will increase minority student retention in the dietetic curriculum. This curriculum will produce students with higher cultural competency scores, confidence scores and effective dietetic counseling scores over those students in the usual curriculum. This project will increase awareness in the community through the website and student presentations and community work about nutrition and the USDA.

Publications

  • Development and Implementation of a Mentoring Program for Undergraduate Dietetic Students by Lizett Olivares RD Lisa A. Kessler DrPH RD Bonny Burns-Whitmore DrPH RD 04/28/2011 presented at the CA Dietetic Association Annual Conference, 2011.
  • Estudiante Dietetico a Spanish curriculum for dietetic undergraduates: Report on Year 1 by Lisa A. Kessler DrPH RD Bonny Burns-Whitmore DrPH RD Aleida Gordon MPH RD Sharonda Wallace PhD RD 04/28/2011 presented at the CA Dietetic Assoc Annual Conferenc3, 2011.
  • Estudiante Dietetico: Update on Participants and Mentoring Program by Lisa A. Kessler DrPH RD Sharonda Wallace Phd RD Bonny Burns-Whitmore DrPH RD Aleida Gordon MS RD Lizett Olivares RD 06/15/2011 presented at the NACTA annual conference, 2011.


Progress 08/15/09 to 08/14/10

Outputs
We are on track regarding the accomplishments of our objectives for year 1. We hired 3 undergraduate bilingual dietetic students. We developed 6 1-unit courses with accompanying expanded course outlines. These courses were approved by our curriculum committee and added to the University course catalog. Three modules guiding this curriculum were approved by two non-affiliated Registered Dietitians. An application process and form were developed for students interested in applying for this curriculum. A blackboard site was developed and functioning beginning in November 2009 for students to learn more about this curriculum. An informational meeting was held in December 2009 and 18 students attended. A logo contest was held both to increase publicity regarding the program and to find a nice logo. Six logos were submitted and one was selected. Thirty two students applied during the month of January. Thirty students were selected for the first cohort of Estudiante Dietetico students. They all enrolled in and passed their first course in this curriculum which was FN 235A- Food and Nutrition Activity, taught in the spring 2010. They participated in a pre and post class knowledge assessment and showed improvement in Spanish nutrition vocabulary. A website was developed and can be found at www.csupomona.edu/dietetico. A brochure was also developed. All three paid students attended the MANRRS conference in March, 2010. Further dissemination of this project was done by one of the paid undergraduate students at a local middle school as well as by all the paid students during the new and transfer student orientations during summer 2010 to increase student interest for the second cohort. An evaluation plan was developed by an outside evaluator. The remaining 5 courses in this curriculum are all scheduled and on the university calendar. PRODUCTS: Six expanded course outlines were developed. They were approved by the University Curriculum Committee and added to the University course offerings. Three modules (obesity, Type 2 diabetes and anemia) were developed and approved by non-affiliated Registered Dietitians. These modules guide the curriculum. A blackboard site was developed to inform students about this curriculum and project. A website (www.csupomona.edu.dietetico) was developed. A brochure was developed. An application packet was developed. A logo was created. Evaluation forms and survey tools were created during summer 2010. OUTCOMES: The outcome is a curriculum which teaches our dietetic students how to better serve the Hispanic population and provides our students with increased marketability. Our first cohort of Estudiante Dietetico is an ethnically diverse group with 70%(n= 21) self-reporting as Hispanic, 17%(5) as White and the remaining 13%(4) as either Asian or mixed ethnic background. Many minority students are taking advantage of this curriculum and will earn an additional credential and gain valuable experience thus improving their ability to find a position and to do their work effectively. They have provided favorable comments regarding this program which are listed on the website. Our website, brochure and outreach into the community through school presentations increases the visability of this program and the nutrition profession to the general community. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Our means of dissemination include a website (www.csupomona.edu/dietetic)which was established in Dec. 2009. We also created a brochure. We had a blackboard site up and running before the website in November 2009, but now the website serves to communiate information about the program. Our paid students presented this information during new and transfer student orientations during summer 2010 and to a middle school in May 2010. A poster on this project was presented at the NACTA annual conference in June 2010. FUTURE INITIATIVES: In the future we will evaluate the quality of students' diet counseling using Spanish only speakers for those students who have completed this curriculum compared to those who have completed our usual curriculum. We will compare the self-reported cultural competency and confidence levels interacting with Hispanic patients for those students completing this curriculum compared to the usual students. We will track the number of students doing their service learning experiences at Spanish only sites. We will hold an application period and interviews to accept the second cohort of Estudiante Dietetico students by the end of January 2011. We will continue to hold the 6 1-unit courses as listed on the University schedule offering each course at least twice during the grant funding period (once for each cohort).

Impacts
These students have already reported favorable experiences with this curriculum. This experience will give them increased sensitivity and skills to provide more culturally competent and effective nutrition services to the Hispanic community. This project will increase minority student retention in the dietetic curriculum. This curriculum will produce students with higher cultural competency scores, confidence scores and effective dietetic counseling scores over those students in the usual curriculum. This project will increase awareness in the community through the website and student presentations and community work about nutrition and the USDA.

Publications

  • A poster was presented entitled, "The Development, Recruitment and Implementation of Estudiente de Dietetico: A Spanish nutrition curriculum for undergraduate dietetic majors" by L. Kessler, S. Wallace & B. Burns-Whitmore on June 23, 2010 at the NACTA annual conference.