Introduction
The Clinical Nutrition Department within the Ministry of Health consists of different nutritional services offered to patients of all ages within the UAE. This department has the responsibility of developing and implementing different nutrition plans that are used by hospitals in offering clinical nutrition services to patients. This analytical paper presents a comprehensive practicum observation report of the Clinical Nutrition Department within the Ministry of Health in UAE.
Observation
The main activities within this department are wellness programs and nutritional service provision. The focus on wellness and nutrition programs revolved around the enhancement of the health of the citizens of the UAE. The department addresses the direct costs in nutritional service delivery, such as expenditure directed towards start-up, equipment, facilities, management, time and operating costs of each nutrition program. There are comprehensive rules within the department that govern the activities of the personnel besides their relevance in role execution. These rules are clearly written in department’s information board. The employees were generally at ease with the rules since they have internalised the need for efficiency as a personal initiative. This department creates, implement, and review different clinical nutritional activities within the UAE. Being a government controlled department, the progress in this department is closely monitored by the technical director who is an appointee of the Minister of Health (UAE Ministry of Health 2014, par. 8). The technical director has the responsibility of micromanaging every nutritional policy and classification of the clinical dietary proposals.
Since the department offers very sensitive support services in the form of clinical nutritional needs, it has created a comprehensive mandate of overseeing the nutritional programs and their effectiveness through the dynamic team of experts. Same as other departments, the Clinical Nutrition Department has computerised all its records through the ministry intranet system which is very secure and easy to use. Basically, the leadership hierarchy within department consists of a general director who reports directly to the minister of health. There are four deputy directors under the general director. Below the deputy directors are the department supervisors and other employees. After spending five consecutive days in this department, which operates for five working days in a week, I noted that the activities in this department are highly centralised since the personnel had internalised the need for competency in performing different duties. Among the duties I observed within this department are discussed below.
Clinical nutritional plans
The Clinical Nutrition Department has the sole responsibility within the Ministry of Health the duty of developing different clinical nutritional plans that the health care institutions within the UAE use to address any nutritional concerns of their patients. Being a department consisting of nutritional personnel, the employees have the responsibility of addressing the pertinent issues in any proposed plan within the rules of nutritional services provision. After spending four consecutive days in the Clinical Nutrition Department, I observed that the personnel attend meeting after every two days to report the progress of every nutritional activity besides raising challenges experienced during practical implementation and review field works. During the second meeting, which I was fortunate to attend, the head of nutritional plans presented a comprehensive report of the success and weaknesses of the anti-alcoholism program to acute jaundice patients (UAE Ministry of Health 2014, par. 11). Besides, the head of nutritional plans presented the expenditure budget to the team.
Regulation duties
The nutritional plan’s implementation and regulation team have the duty of measuring the success of each program in terms of feedback from the field practicum. Besides, it has the role of micromanaging the various programs during and after implementation of each stage of the various clinical nutrition programs. I was fortunate to be part of the team sent to review the implementation of a nutritional program at the Al Baraha Hospital. During one of the visits to this hospital, I observed the head of the nutritional plans as he audited the progress through interviewing the hospital personnel and some of the patients selected randomly (UAE Ministry of Health 2014, par. 13).
Results
The Clinical Nutrition Department is one of the largest departments in terms of personnel in the Ministry of Health since their activities are spread across the UAE. The department develops comprehensive clinical nutritional programs, evaluates the effectiveness of these programs, and proactively participates in their implementation. Same as other departments, the Clinical Nutrition Department has computerised all its records through the ministry intranet system which is very secure and easy to use. This department creates, implement, and review different clinical nutritional activities within the UAE. Being a government controlled department, the progress in this department is closely monitored by the technical director who is an appointee of the Minister of Health.
Conclusion
The Clinical Nutrition Department within the Ministry of Health has competent personnel and substantial expertise in clinical nutrition programs. I noted that the activities in this department are highly centralised since the personnel had internalised the need for competency in performing different duties. Being a department consisting of nutritional experts, the employees have the responsibility of addressing the pertinent issues in any proposed plan within the rules of nutritional services provision. Generally, the department has the duty of developing inclusive clinical nutritional programs, appraising the effectiveness of these programs, and proactively contributing to their implementation.
Recommendations
Basically, the Clinical Nutrition Department requires demands that the personnel should be highly skilled besides having social communication skills in order to freely interact with the general public. Expertise is also required in line with the current global medical practice. Therefore, the employee training programs within the Clinical Nutrition Department should be able to develop and operate solutions that incorporate data from a wide range of organizations and technology to effectively provide clinical nutrition programs (Soumendu 100). The improvements on the training program should incorporate a proactive subsystem. The proactive subsystem may be effective when the objectives are properly matched with the responsibilities assigned to an individual in an organization. This subsystem will provide the much needed motivation to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend (El-Jardali et al. 45). When the system functions within accepted parameters, employees will eventually develop a self consciousness to deliver quality services and defend the organization as part of a family (Weiss 23).
Works Cited
El-Jardali, Fadi, Diana Jamal, Ahmad Abdallah and Kassem Kassak. “Human resources for health planning and management in the Eastern Mediterranean region: Facts, gaps and forward thinking for research and policy.” Human Resources for Health, 5.9 (2010): 23-97. Print.
Soumendu, Biswas. “Commitment, involvement, and satisfaction as predictors of employee performance.” South Asian Journal of Management, 18.2 (2011): 92- 107. Print.
UAE Ministry of Health 2014. “Clinical nutrition department”. Ministry of Health Online. Web.
Weiss, William. “Building morale, motivating, and empowering employees.” Supervision Journal, 72.9 (2010): 23-26. Print.