Abstract
Objective: To explore the feelings of new nutritionists about their job performance to prevent their early job turnover.
Methods: We conducted interviews with 10 nutritionists (1 male, 9 females) who have been employed for three months according to semi-structure interview guidelines. All interviews were tape-recorded and a verbatim transcript was made. The obtained data were qualitatively and descriptively analyzed.
Results: Five categories (“anxiety about not being competent,” “confusion regarding work content,” “feelings toward the leader,” “joy of working,” and “hope for the future”) and 18 subcategories were extracted regarding the feelings of new nutritionists about their job performance.
Conclusions: The new nutritionists had anxiety about not being able to perform well as a professional, and the dilemma of not being able to take full advantage of their qualification. On the other hand, they had hope for the future, while accepting the reality with awareness of the relationships with patients or users, supervisors, and senior nutritionists. To prevent their early job turnover, stepwise and systematic training is important at workplace, which include education for their supervisors to improve their teaching methods and attitudes to the new nutritionists.
