Nutrition, Diet and Health Tips

The guidelines for practice in Nutrition and Dietetics outline clearly the benefits of post studies internship in polishing the clinical, Community and Public Health skills .

In Kenya, Nutrition internship was unheard of until the Kenya Nutritionists and Dietetians Institute took it up to distribute the interns all through the country. As expected, this was met with alot of opposition and backlashes from the policy makers and the students themselves because of one major reason, the internship STIPEND that is stipulated in the 2016 internship policy has NEVER been implemented.

Students and professionals were demoralised but because of the professional benefits of the internship program, we still took it up. I was one of the interns in the 2017 cohort at Thika Level 5 Hospital and I can confirm the professional benefits that came with it.

Because of the demoralising and discouraging effects of UNPAID internship with other Medical interns like the Medical Officers, BSC. Nurses, Clinical Officers, been paid , the historical injustices had to be challenged.

Through the Kenya Union of Nutritionists Dietetians Secretary General, Michael Odero, the unpaid internship for Nutrition Officers was challenged in court in 2018, and a decision reached on Friday 29, July 2022, which advised the Ministry of Health to pay the 2017 Nutrition Interns and to continue paying Nutrition Interns as well. That is yet to be done.

Recently, the Kenya Nutritionists and Dieticians Institute gave a communication to withdraw the Internship Program citing demoralised interns, backlash from the ministry and opposition from Professionals as some of their reasons to do so.

As Professionals do we support such a move? No, but as an intern who underwent 12 months of unpaid internship, I totally understand the frustrations. This will not only create a gap in professional development, but there will be serious manpower gaps and shortages in the facilities that were training the interns.

Nutrition is one of the most understaffed cadre in Health with over 87% deficit according to the staffing policy in health care adapted by Kenya from WHO.

Very little is been done both by the Ministry of Health and Council of Governors ( who are the Primary Employers in Kenya’s Public Service) to bridge the existing gap. The internship program for the last few years has been ‘ Cushioning ‘ the gaps, which should not be the case because internship program is meant for training.

Now with the withdrawal of the internship program what happens to service delivery to Kenyans? What is the ministry doing to Cushion the gaps that will be left when they leave?

Kenyatta National Hospital takes up 30+ interns annually from inception of the internship program. Other level 5 hospitals in the country like Mbagathi, Mama Lucy Kibaki, Thika Level 5 Hospital and more take up atleast 20 interns at the beginning of the year as well. For level 4s we have an average of 13 interns per center.

The county governments on average does 2 nutrition officers advertisements yearly with 5 technicians and 5 technologists to be distributed to the several levels of Hospitals in the respective counties 💔.

Recently, the President of Kenya, Dr. William Ruto, through the ministry of Health launched the Kenya Human Resources for Health Council ( KHRaC) that is meant to oversee staffing and address internship disparities in the country and it would be good if they shared with the public what they’re going to do to address the shortages in manpower, UNPAID internships and historical injustices faced by the Nutrition and Dietetics Professionals in Kenya.

Thank you for reading.

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