The purpose of this study was to develop a standardized job description for dietitians using the DACUM technique. To examine the validity of job description through DACUM, dietitians were surveyed relative to importance, performance, and difficulty. The survey was conducted April 1-30, 2014. A total of 217 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The final developed job description for dietitians included six duties, 38 tasks, and 210 task elements. DACUM’s findings include six duties: nutrition management, food service operation management, hygiene safety management, community food and nutrition program management, organization management, and professionalism strengthening. There were 5.1 points regarding importance, 4.1 points regarding performance, 4.9 points regarding difficulty, and statistically significant differences (p<0.001). Dietitians responded that ‘nutrition management’ and ‘hygiene safety management’ were the most important. ‘Hygiene and safety management’ showed the highest performance, and ‘community food and nutrition program management’ and ‘professionalism strengthening'' showed the highest difficulty. Thus, it is considered that the job analysis results can be used to evaluate and improve the subjects’ training program. Dietitians’ jobs are subject to various environmental changes, such as demographic changes, health care system changes, and the development of the food industry, and thus, should be reviewed and analyzed periodically.

School dietitians are divided into two groups according to their status of employment, school nutrition teachers and dietitians, with the latter being irregularly employed by the institution. In this study, the job satisfaction, communication ability, work performance and importance in feeding services and dietetic counseling of both groups were compared. To accomplish this, 100 regularly employed school nutrition teachers (regularly employed) and 101 dietitians (irregularly employed) were surveyed by questionnaire. The results were as follows: (1) The irregularly employed dietitians showed a lower level of job satisfaction than the school nutrition teachers. This was likely because the school nutrition teachers belonged to the strong inner circle of school teachers and cafeteria workers, and had enough time to prepare for class lectures and consultancy. Conversely, the irregularly employed dietitians generally handle extra office work in addition to their primary duties. Despite these differences, both parties agreed that it was necessary to change the work system. Additionally, school dietitians reported that they had little opportunity for further training for career development. (2) Both parties had good communication skills; however, the irregularly employed dietitians had more conflicts with other staff members than the regular employees. (3) Job performance and job importance level was compared among employees involved in school feeding services and nutrition counseling. No significant differences were observed between dietitians and nutrition teachers in either group (p<0.05). However, the school nutrition teachers showed better skills than school dietitian with respect to public relations, running independent counseling offices, and using effective tools and materials. Job performance level was lower when compared to job importance level for all items, which meant the job was not well performed when compared to the work importance awareness.

The facts of job satisfaction and their perceived importance among elementary school foodservice dietitians were assessed. The survey instrument consisted of three parts: the job satisfaction survey was used to measure facets of job satisfaction and the level of total satisfaction; perceived importance questions for corresponding job facets; and demographic items. A survey of school food service operations was undertaken and detailed information was collected from 170 dietitians. The collected data were processed using the SPSS package program for descriptive analysis and analysis of valiance. School foodservice dietitians' importance and satisfactions scores on their job and working environment were 4.25 and 2.83, respectively. The respondents rated the subscales of 'communication' and 'nature of work' the highest and the subscales of 'pay' and 'working environment' the lowest The results of facet satisfaction scores and corresponding perceived importance scores were paired to be plotted on the Importance-Performance Analysis Grid. IPA grid was used to provide a strategy for food service managers to counteract dietitian dissatisfaction.