Leader

BDA Refresher Course

Some 220 people attended the British Dietetic Association Refresher Course held in July, 1974, at Nottingham University. The course was very well run and most enjoyable and i t is to be hoped that every one who went profited by the experience. Planning a suitable programme for a Refresher Course of this type is a difficult thing to do, and it is impossible to please everyone. Each member who attended will have found some days more satisfactory than others, though not necessarily the same days in each case.

The first day was devoted to Community Health, a subject of particular interest to dietitians a t the present time, with National Health Service Reorganisation under way. I t is likely that many dietitians will have commitments in the community in the near future and must try to use their skills in the best possible way. Hospital dietitians, used to working with individual patients, may find it difficult at first to accept that they must teach groups to teach others and must deny themselves the luxury of the direct one to one interview, if their work is t o have value in the community.

The second day of the Refresher Course was devoted to Psychiatric topics in the morning and to Original Contributions in the afternoon. The latter was an innovation this year and was most successful. There are not a great many dietitians actually working in psychiatric hospitals at present, but we should be aware of the influence psychiatric problems can have on eating habits.

On Thursday, the morning was devoted to Surgical topics and the afternoon to discussion groups, and on Friday the topic was paediatrics, another rather specialist subject of

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which dietitians not directly involved tend to be rather afraid. Again the dietitians role in seeing that the normal child receives the best possible nutrition in its early days was stressed.

As in every course of this type it could be said that no startling new facts emerged. The great advantage of such a course is the time spent iq the stimulating atmosphere of learning and the opportunity to discuss problems with others. At a residential course the participant is divorced from the trivialities of his or her daily working life, so that the mind can be focussed on the real issues involved. The question must arise whether Some form of Refresher course should be compulsory for all dietitians, or at least compulsory for anyone returning to the profession after a number of years. Dietetics has moved very rapidly in recent years and it is sad that outmoded methods and ideas are still being propagated by dietitians who have not kept up to date and moved with the times, or by people who have recently returned to the profession and are still using the methods, diet sheets, etc. which were in use ten or fifteen years ago. It is particularly easy for dietitians who work on their own to burrow them- selves into a comfortable rut, from which they are unwilling to emerge in order to learn anything new.

There is a great deal of discussion going on at present on the education of dietitians. Perhaps some deep thought shouId be given to post- registration education. Should every dietitian who wants to remain on the register have to attend a given number of lectures or short courses each year? Before a dietitian returns to the profession after years of domesticity should she attend a special Refresher

.

Course, such as the one run recently in Glasgow? For the sake of the profession it is essential that we keep up to date. It sometimes appears that the people who attend the biennial BDA Refresher Courses are those who are in least need of such a course. We all want to command higher salaries, but perhaps we should look hard at ourselves and decide how well we are really doing our jobs.

E.C. Bateman

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Phenylketonuria :

3 0 0 - 5 0

ymal/ l

200

100

.~, mq/100rnl , Phmylolmine

2501:1/@*\,,

, \ \ Day-time variations in serum

phenylalanine (triangles) and ty- 1 5 0 - 2 5 9, rosinc (circles) in a phenyl-

ketonuric child having his first meal as usual at 07.45 hrs or

4 5 , ,o----- - O - _ _ _ _ _ d r - B '':*:<* /' fasting until 11.45 hrs. Note the ~ - - - - - _ A plienylnlanine-restricted meal

with Albuinnid (R) (Enzyniopenic Anaemias, Lysosonies and other

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For furlher details plcasc write to sole U.K. Agents:

SCIENTIFIC HOSPITAL SUPPLIES LTD. S l S 38 Queensland Street, Liverpool 7 -

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