Diet therapy--a forgotten art?
This study evaluated paediatric nursing students' knowledge of diet therapy to establish whether it was sufficient to prepare them for practice. A questionnaire sampled 19 1st-year and nine 4th-year students' diet therapy knowledge in relation to chronic renal failure, cystic fibrosis, juvenile diabetes mellitus and liver disease. The knowledge of 1st and 4th-year students was compared and then evaluated against criteria, devised by the researcher to measure whether this knowledge level was sufficient for practice. The Mann-Whitney Utest showed a significant difference between the 1st and 4th-years' diet therapy knowledge. The mean score for overall diet therapy knowledge of 4th-year students was 46 per cent. The results suggest that knowledge of diet therapy is insufficient to prepare nursing students for practice and that this topic needs further emphasis in paediatric nurse education.