Discussion forum
You are nutritionists in a diabetes education program. You have noticed that quite a few of your clients are older African immigrant women. They are not always following their diets, and you are not sure that they understand your diet instructions. One option that your team is considering is to develop some new, simpler diet education materials specifically for this audience.
Discuss: Is developing new educational materials more of an authoritative or more of a negotiated approach to the problem? Could your clients have barriers you are not aware of? What would be the pros and cons of involving them in finding a solution? What are other options you can consider?
Response to student I view this development of new educational materials method as being more authoritarian than negotiated. This approach assumes that the clients do not understand the reasoning behind the diet plan, and therefore do not follow it; however, it fails to acknowledge that there could be several other factors that come into effect. Perhaps the issues is that they do not understand and further educating them would help, but this is not an assumption the team of nutritionists can make. In order for this to be a negotiated approach, the nutritionist should all speak with each of the clients in one-on-one sessions, or perhaps as a group to understand each others views. The team should ask their clients why they are unwilling or unable to follow the diet plans they had been recommended. The team of nutritionists are attempting to use only Western methods, without taking into account the background of the women. There could perhaps be barriers with their backgrounds that the diet plan clashes with, such as some other aspect of their traditional methods or values. These are important aspects that must be communicated, or else there will simply be misunderstanding between the nutritionist and their clients. It is necessary for them to understand each other, and perhaps through meaningful discussion, they may be able to come up with a diet plan that the nutritionists find helpful that also aligns with the views of the clients.
There are many advantages and disadvantages to including them in an attempt to find a solution. The advantages would be that it would take into account everyones views. These different perspectives would be able to come together to form a solution that everyone finds effective. However; there are also drawbacks to this, such as the difference in educational (as mentioned in the question). Though this would not be an assumption to base a decision off of, this is a factor that must be taken into account. There is a difference in the educational background between the clients and nutritionists, so there is the possibility of the clients not understanding why they must make certain changes to their diets, as well as why other changes would not work as effectively.
Despite this, I still believe the best option would be to meet with the clients and discuss why they are unable to follow the diet. Together through mutual cooperation and understanding, the team and clients would be able to come to a decision of what diet plan would work best with taking everyones perspectives into account.
