Attitudes towards and experiences with research: Differences between dietetics students and professionals in Australia and the United States

Abstract

Unlike classroom training, past research experiences supported plans for future research. Further work needs to investigate how the culture of the profession can be changed to support more dietitian-conducted research.

Survey tools for measuring research or evidence‐based practice constructs in dietetics: A narrative review

“…Only one of these studies addressed the EBP topic 49 . One of the tools 47 appeared to have potential as a scored scale, but the results were reported on an individual question basis so they were included in the unscored category.…”

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“…Guttmann"s lambda-2 is a better method than Cronbach's alpha to measure the reliability of a questionnaire (Osburn, 2000;Sijtsma, 2009). Thus, following previous research (López et al, 2013;Menold, Kaczmirek, Lenzner, & Neusar, 2014;Tan, Hemmelgarn, Baumgardner, & Tucker, 2017; Van der Ark, Van der Palm, & Sijtsma, 2011), this study computes Guttmann"s lambda-2 to determine the reliability of its questionnaire. Guttmann"s lambda-2 is 0.60, which is acceptable (Callender & Osburn, 1979).…”

Undertaking a research project improves confidence in research skills among student dietitians

“…This contrasts with many studies in different countries or different disciplines. For example, evaluations of student dietitians in Australia, 3 student dietitians and dietitians in the USA, 32 science students in the USA, 33 and medical and allied health students in South Africa 34 have reported a university research project as a driver for future research involvement, including the prospect of future PhD studies. However, in these examples, undertaking a research project at university is generally elective, and therefore may select students already interested in developing a research career, whereas, in the present study, the research project module was compulsory.…”

“…14 The lack of validity and reliability testing may introduce variation in student responses, whereas social desirability bias may lead some students to exaggerate attitudes and confidence, although statistical analysis was still able to identify findings that were statistically significant and theoretically plausible. Different questionnaires have subsequently been used to measure attitudes to research 13,32 and confidence in research skills 19 and some instruments have undergone psychometric testing of phenomena including research involvement, 44,45 and such questionnaires may be used in future studies.…”