RDs doing home visits in PHNtr??

[Sayeh Shirvani]

Hello Stacey,
All the home visits done through our program in Ohio which is called the Child and Family Health Services(CFHS) is done either by RNs or outreach workers who may not have any degrees or certifications.  Recently they have asked us for nutrition education materials to be developed so they could hand them out during a home visit.
We also have many RDs in our clinics who are providing services for both WIC clients as well as CFHS clients.   In some of our clinics the RNs are providing nutrition services  and social services in addition to their other duties.  
 The licensure law in Ohio allows for RNs to provide nutrition services as long as it's within the scope of their practice. (This is very vague)  I have found many RNs who are not comfortable counseling the High risk clients i.e. Gestational Diabetes, etc.  We, however, have mandated that they have a referral mechanism in place for these clients to be referred to RDs in the community. We do have some programs who have hired Dietetic Technicians but they must have onsite RD supervision.  In some cases we have RDs who go to the clinics once a month and review the work and are available for consultation by phone. 
I hope some of this helps.

Sayeh S. Shirvani, MS, RD, LD
MCH Program Consultant/Nutritionist
Ohio Department of Health
Bureau of Child and Family Health Services
(614) 466-5332
Email: sshirvan at gw.odh.state.oh.us 
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot  
read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn"
                                                          Alvin Toffler 


>>> STACEY KRAWCZYK <SKRAWCZY at idph.state.il.us> 03/09/00 02:56PM >>>

Fellow PHNtr,
I am requesting any information regarding RDs doing home visits in Public
Health Nutrition, especially in the area of Maternal & Child Health.  Our
state WIC program is continually being encouraged to integrate services
with our home visiting MCH program (called Family Case Management in
our state).  This leaves our few nutrition professionals we have left in
our programs feeling the crush by administrators' use of other health
professionals (RN's) to do everything, including nutrition assessment &
education.  We would like to build the case for using RDs & nutritionists
and would appreciate any experiences you may have or had.  In
addition, if you have any staffing requirements for nutrition professionals
in your MCH programs, I would appreciate that information as well. 
Thank you in advance for your response.
Stacey Krawczyk, MS, RD, LD
Regional Nutritionist Consultant
Illinois Department of Human Services
Skrawczy at idph.state.il.us