This study was carried out to develop job standards for clinical dietitian administering clinical nutrition therapy for diabetic patients in hospitals. Base on DACUM(Developing a curriculum) analysis of 17 members including clinical dietitians, professors and researchers majoring in clinical nutrition, information on duties, tasks and task elements of clinical dietitians for diabetes care was derived and applied to diabetes mellitus-specific clinical nutrition care in hospitals for evaluation.

1. Types of hospitals surveyed were 39 tertiary hospitals(37.5%), 59 general hospitals(56.7%) and 6 hospitals(5.8%). The number of permitted beds was 985 beds at tertiary hospital, 598 beds at general hospital, 393 beds at hospital. In 103 hospitals, 59.2% of hospitals have a separate educational room.

2. Types of education for diabetes care that is currently operating in hospitals are individual education, group education, practice education, group+individual education, group+practice education, individual+practice education, group+individual+practice education. For view of the program type, frequency of individual education was found to be 50.2%. The mean fee for education and counseling was the highest in group+individual+practice education but the lowest in group education. Fee for group education was significantly lower than that for individual education.

3. The final developed job standards for clinical dietitians for diabetes care included 4 duties, 19 tasks and 56 task elements. The duties consisted of ‘A. Nutrition assessment’, ‘B. Nutrition diagnosis’, ‘C. Nutrition intervention’ and ‘D. Nutrition monitoring·evaluation’. The tasks consisted of ‘A1. Checking basic information’, ‘A2. Checking medical history and therapy plan’, ‘A3. Evaluation of anthropometric measurement data’, ‘A4. Examination of test data’, ‘A5. Examination of physical signs data’, ‘A6. Collection and evaluation of food·nutrition-related data’, ‘A7. Decision of nutritional needs’, ‘A8. Documentation of nutrition assessment’, ‘B1. Derivation of nutrition diagnosis’, ‘B2. Documentation of nutrition diagnosis’, ‘C1. Planning of nutrition intervention’, ‘C2. Supply of food and nutrients’, ‘C3. Education of nutrition and self-management’, ‘C4. Conducting nutrition counseling’, ‘C5. Documentation of nutrition intervention’, ‘D1. Monitoring of nutritional status’, ‘D2. Monitoring of nutrition intervention process’, ‘D3. Evaluation of nutrition intervention’ and ‘D4. Documentation of nutrition monitoring·evaluation’. For application of diabetes mellitus-specific job standards in clinical nutrition care, 108 work activities were developed and classified into 90 basic and 18 recommended types.

4. Performance rates of standardized jobs in field application test were 80.2%, at nutrition assessment, 99.6% at nutrition diagnosis, 78.5% at nutrition intervention and 32.9% at nutrition monitoring·evaluation.

These results can be applied as guidelines to implement jobs for diabetes mellitus-specific clinical nutrition services in clinical settings. In addition, they would be useful for education standards in educational institutions for education and training of clinical dietitian.