"Enhancing Dietetics Programs: The Case for Supplemental Recorded Courses"

This week I got to present at the Massachusetts State Dietitian Conference and speak about something I am so passionate about, improving dietetics education. The purpose of this post is to provide a summary of that that presentation.

I have been working in the field of dietetics education since 2020 when I started tutoring students for the RD exam and one theme that I have seen year after year is that students are finishing their dietetics internships and feeling unprepared for both the Registered Dietitian (RD) Exam and for entry level dietitian jobs.

These students are students who are good students and did well in their degree programs and dietetics internship, but that isn't translating to when is truly counts most as they try to access the RD credential.

This group of students who needed additional support, but not 1:1 tutoring were my motivation to start adding recorded videos to my RD Exam prep tutoring offerings. I started with 11 courses in 2020 and as students were having success with these videos allowing them to finally master these topics, I received requests for more of these videos. This lead me to expand my course offerings to now over 70 topics (ranging from food science to nutrition support to situation practice questions), including self-paced study programs. As students were using my video courses they were sharing their success with their dietetic internship (DI) directors and I started working with DI's to build build customized RD exam prep programs from my recorded courses. Similar to my 1:1 students these programs also started to see significant improvements in their past rates after adding recorded courses.

These outcomes lead to me seeing the need for dietetics programs, especially DI's, to add this type of material to their programs. I was always so glad to hear from my students how helpful my courses were in them finally understanding and being able to apply the material, but I also wished that they had been able to reach this level of confidence during their dietetic internship. All of this drove me to want to start speaking more about this topic as to improve the field of dietetics we need to be constantly improving how we train and support our students.

There are many types of content that recorded courses can be used for such as covering basic topics, guest lectures, pre-rotation training and RD Exam prep classes.

For dietetic internships, any ability to reduce the load of your preceptors should be taken (said as a preceptor). In addition to precepting the intern we often continue to have full coverage of our units (likely with cross-coverage) and also are responsible for grading and reviewing intern worksheets. Recorded courses can be used to create pre-rotation training videos that include information that preceptor would like the intern to know before the rotation such as key things to know about the hospital (building names, paging system, different staff roles, etc.) or to give them a introduction to the patient population they would be working with. The more prepared the student is for the rotation the more time their is to focus on hands on clinical experience.

With dropping RD Exam pass rates (Feb 2024 CDR data shows currently 1st pass rates at 62.6% and 2nd attempt pass rates as 37.7%) it is necessary that DI's are including RD exam preparation in their programing. As each students needs are different and students will need different durations of studying, recorded courses are ideal. Students can focus on the topics they need the most assistance with and student on their schedules.

For programs that are interested in starting a library of recorded courses it is key that they first get feedback from their key stakeholders. This should includes students, preceptors, staff and alumni. Students and alumni input are vital to understand what type of program would help to enhance your program best. I encourage students who would like to see this type of programing to share this material with their DI directors. Programs should also be aware of the benefits and challenges of recorded courses:

Key Benefits for Students, Educators, and Programs:

1. Expanded access to subject matter experts

2. Flexibility for instructors/professors and students

3. Adaption to different student learning styles

4. Increased accessibility of materials

5. Decreased load on preceptors

6. Maximizes class time

7. Standardization of dietetics training

8. Improved RD exam pass rates

Challenges to Consider:

1. Recorded courses can't replace discussion based classes and may not work for certain topics

2. Negative perception by students and dietitians

3. Systems must be established to continuously update

4. More research is needed on the benefits/limitations of using recorded courses in dietetics

As I continue to work with students and DI's, my #1 goal to to contribute to supporting RD2Be's prepare their exam and entry into the field of dietetics as confident providers!

If you have any questions please contact me at danajfryernutrition@gmail.com