Learning Outcome 7
Evaluate contemporary principles of health policy, laws, regulations and costs in the US and other countries to better understand the essential components of delivering health and nutrition services in urban and other settings.
Artifact:
Artifact 1 – HHS8000 Trends Affecting Health Policy - National School Lunch Program Debate and Paper
Reflection:
Trends Affecting Health Policy was one of the first classes I took as a Graduate Coordinated Program student. At the time, I did not understand the connection between nutrition and the goals of this course. I remember my lack of excitement surrounding the course as I ordered the required textbooks: Understanding Health Policy and Hospitals: What They Are and How They Work. What I did not realize was how important this course would be to my future dietetic practice and clients. Understanding health policies, laws, regulations and costs in our country and the problems associated with them is crucial to becoming a successful health professional.
Our first assignment for the class was a group debate on a United States government program. My team, made up of four other students, selected the new National School Lunch program (NSLP) guidelines as our topic. The objective was to research the strengths and weaknesses of the program and present a debate arguing opposing positions on the issue to the class. Along with the in-class debate, each member of the group was required to write a three-page paper explaining our topic, establishing our position and providing a research-based recommendation for improvements. I reluctantly took the negative position in the debate because two of the other group members quickly volunteered for the affirmative position. Since we had just started school, I wanted to make sure my first group work experience was a positive and collaborative one as these skills will directly translate to a successful work experience in the future.
As a part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and in an effort to curb childhood obesity, the new NSLP guidelines were passed in 2010. Under the guidelines, the government required schools to provide healthier lunches to their student bodies. Although approved in 2010, the changes didn’t take effect until the 2012 – 2013 school year. Before I started researching the topic, I was worried about a lack of evidence and research for the negative position. The little I knew about the updates to the NSLP caused me to incorrectly assume that they increased the nutritional value of school lunch, which seemed like they were finally moving in the right direction. However, I quickly realized there are two sides to every argument.
Although it was clear that the NSLP guidelines were created with good intentions, I was able to expose several program flaws that needed to be resolved before I believed this program could be a success. Through critical examination, I researched this government program from all angles in order to gain a complete picture. I found that students were dissatisfied with the new regulations. Meal costs had gone up while meal sizes had gotten smaller. From a nutritional standpoint, the change in meal size was a symptom of new calorie requirements that mandated more servings of fruits and vegetables and smaller servings of meat and grains. The biggest problem I uncovered was that the new regulations resulted in many abrupt changes, causing students and cafeteria employees to fail to understand the value of good nutrition.
The last part of the assignment was to provide a recommendation for program improvements. Individuals (and programs/organizations/agencies) benefit from a more step-by-step approach: small changes occurring over a longer amount of time, allowing those influenced by the changes to adjust accordingly. I believe in order to get staff and students aligned to the same expectations and goals, a slower program ramp up over a five-year period is necessary. In this way, nutrition education surrounding the importance of healthy eating could be implemented and meal changes, calorie changes and cost increases could happen slowly.
On the day of the debate, our team performed well, earning a 93% overall. I was proud of the job we did and the grade we received, especially since we had so many moving parts to evaluate and consider. Not only did I acquire essential knowledge pertaining to health policy, laws, regulations and costs, I also learned how to effectively collaborate with my peers and accomplish a common goal.
This assignment gave me valuable experience that I was able to use during my food service rotation with the Cherokee County School Nutrition Program. The work I did to evaluate the NSLP program helped me to better understand this program’s role in providing health and nutrition services to the school system. It also permitted me to identify the new regulations as well as the costs associated with them. I was able to play an active role in menu planning for the 2013 – 2014 school year due to my deeper level of understanding. At the same time, I could sympathize with the growing pains my preceptor and the county were going through as they were having to comply with the new regulations while still needing to provide the best nutrition possible to their students.
The presentation-based nature of this course allowed me to learn about many current health policies and laws that I may not have gotten as in-depth of a view on in a traditional lecture-style classroom. I really enjoyed watching the interactive style of the debates and hearing my classmates argue the strengths and weaknesses of each program or policy. I now realize that there are many health policies, laws and regulations that will influence my future career as a dietetics professional.
Artifact:
Artifact 1 – HHS8000 Trends Affecting Health Policy - National School Lunch Program Debate and Paper
Reflection:
Trends Affecting Health Policy was one of the first classes I took as a Graduate Coordinated Program student. At the time, I did not understand the connection between nutrition and the goals of this course. I remember my lack of excitement surrounding the course as I ordered the required textbooks: Understanding Health Policy and Hospitals: What They Are and How They Work. What I did not realize was how important this course would be to my future dietetic practice and clients. Understanding health policies, laws, regulations and costs in our country and the problems associated with them is crucial to becoming a successful health professional.
Our first assignment for the class was a group debate on a United States government program. My team, made up of four other students, selected the new National School Lunch program (NSLP) guidelines as our topic. The objective was to research the strengths and weaknesses of the program and present a debate arguing opposing positions on the issue to the class. Along with the in-class debate, each member of the group was required to write a three-page paper explaining our topic, establishing our position and providing a research-based recommendation for improvements. I reluctantly took the negative position in the debate because two of the other group members quickly volunteered for the affirmative position. Since we had just started school, I wanted to make sure my first group work experience was a positive and collaborative one as these skills will directly translate to a successful work experience in the future.
As a part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and in an effort to curb childhood obesity, the new NSLP guidelines were passed in 2010. Under the guidelines, the government required schools to provide healthier lunches to their student bodies. Although approved in 2010, the changes didn’t take effect until the 2012 – 2013 school year. Before I started researching the topic, I was worried about a lack of evidence and research for the negative position. The little I knew about the updates to the NSLP caused me to incorrectly assume that they increased the nutritional value of school lunch, which seemed like they were finally moving in the right direction. However, I quickly realized there are two sides to every argument.
Although it was clear that the NSLP guidelines were created with good intentions, I was able to expose several program flaws that needed to be resolved before I believed this program could be a success. Through critical examination, I researched this government program from all angles in order to gain a complete picture. I found that students were dissatisfied with the new regulations. Meal costs had gone up while meal sizes had gotten smaller. From a nutritional standpoint, the change in meal size was a symptom of new calorie requirements that mandated more servings of fruits and vegetables and smaller servings of meat and grains. The biggest problem I uncovered was that the new regulations resulted in many abrupt changes, causing students and cafeteria employees to fail to understand the value of good nutrition.
The last part of the assignment was to provide a recommendation for program improvements. Individuals (and programs/organizations/agencies) benefit from a more step-by-step approach: small changes occurring over a longer amount of time, allowing those influenced by the changes to adjust accordingly. I believe in order to get staff and students aligned to the same expectations and goals, a slower program ramp up over a five-year period is necessary. In this way, nutrition education surrounding the importance of healthy eating could be implemented and meal changes, calorie changes and cost increases could happen slowly.
On the day of the debate, our team performed well, earning a 93% overall. I was proud of the job we did and the grade we received, especially since we had so many moving parts to evaluate and consider. Not only did I acquire essential knowledge pertaining to health policy, laws, regulations and costs, I also learned how to effectively collaborate with my peers and accomplish a common goal.
This assignment gave me valuable experience that I was able to use during my food service rotation with the Cherokee County School Nutrition Program. The work I did to evaluate the NSLP program helped me to better understand this program’s role in providing health and nutrition services to the school system. It also permitted me to identify the new regulations as well as the costs associated with them. I was able to play an active role in menu planning for the 2013 – 2014 school year due to my deeper level of understanding. At the same time, I could sympathize with the growing pains my preceptor and the county were going through as they were having to comply with the new regulations while still needing to provide the best nutrition possible to their students.
The presentation-based nature of this course allowed me to learn about many current health policies and laws that I may not have gotten as in-depth of a view on in a traditional lecture-style classroom. I really enjoyed watching the interactive style of the debates and hearing my classmates argue the strengths and weaknesses of each program or policy. I now realize that there are many health policies, laws and regulations that will influence my future career as a dietetics professional.