Abstract
Objective: To assess the roles, practice and work-related attributes of the community and public health nutrition workforce in Australia. Design: Cross-sectional survey using self-administered mail or email delivered questionnaire. Setting and subjects: 240 practitioners working in community and public health nutrition positions in the Australian health system. Main outcome measures: Self-reported core functions, frequency of work-related practice activity and extent of multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration. Results: An 87% questionnaire response rate was achieved. The demographic and educational profile of the sample showed female practitioners (95%) from 26 to 45 years (67%), from dietetics training backgrounds (75%) employed in state health department community health services as community dietitian/nutritionists (54%) and public health nutritionists in government health or non-government organisations (18%). Public health nutrition type of positions tended to report most frequently core functions in project management, nutrition education resource development, health professional education, evaluation and policy development. Dietitian type of positions in this sample reported core functions that tended to reflect functions such as clinical and group education, professional advisory services and implementing community-wide nutrition education and food supply programs. Public health nutrition positions reported more multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration than the dietitian type of positions. Health promoters, community health nurses and general practitioners were the most common professional groups and community organisations and other state government departments the most common inter-sectoral organisations involved in workforce collaborations. Conclusions: This section of the workforce performs a mix of functions, many of which are in the clinical domain of individual care and education. The small number of practitioners... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]