Nutrition Training Policy among Health Professionals in Community Health Centers and Sub-Centers in Indonesia

Abstract

Professional health workers in community health centers and sub-centers are required to provide nutrition services. However, nowadays not all community health centers and sub-centers have nutritionists, so all health workers need to have strong teamwork to ensure nutrition programs can occur effectively. This study aimed to describe the types of professional health workers and their history of receiving training in nutrition. This study used IFLS (Indonesia Family Life Survey) 2014-15 from the Community Facility Book to address the health worker's experience in nutrition training. The result of this study revealed that medical doctors had more experience in attending the training in nutrition. Even though there was limited training in the last 12 months. This situation might occur due to the limited number of health workers who can join the training or the limited budget to provide training to all health workers. Education about nutrition is essential to all health workers, not only nutritionist because community health center/sub-centers is the closest health services in the community. Preventing the prevalence of stunting and other health-related nutrition problems can be done by educating health workers immediately.