Documentation of nutritional care.

The results of a study designed to gather information concerning dietitians' charting practices suggest that The American Dietetic Association and hospitals themselves have recognized the importance of dietitians charting in medical records. The results also suggest that dietitians recognize their own adequacies and inadequacies in terms of charting frequency. The identification of lack of time as the factor most often preventing more frequent recording may indicate a need to adjust staffing patterns or to re-order priorities. Achievement of the latter may require more education concerning both the overall importance of charting and the importance of charting some specific categories of information. Due to less exposure to charting during professional programs, dietetic graduates prior to 1966 may need more help to improve their charting than later graduates.