Using an interview guide, Key Informant Interviews (KII) were conducted with four retired dietitians who provided a historical account of dietetics practice in Ghana spanning the pre-independence era

until 2013. In addition, an in-depth interview was conducted with two officers of the GDA to understand the support that the GDA offers dietitians in Ghana, the difficulties and challenges of practicing dietetics in Ghana, career progression for dietetic professionals, and level of remuneration for dietitians, in relation to other allied health professions. An in-depth interview with the Head of the Dietetics Department of the University of Ghana discussed training of dietitians in Ghana, the find more challenges involved with the training, and opportunities for enriching dietetics practice in Ghana. Another interview with the resident dietitian at the Ridge hospital also discussed dietetics practice in the Ghana Health Service with focus on practice

standards and challenges. Additional information regarding new dietetic programs, number of practicing dietitians, dietetics training needs, capacity, and practice standards, and placement of dietitians were obtained from other informants, including the chief dietitian of the Ghana Health Service, via phone calls and electronic mail. KII respondents were purposively selected based on their perceived knowledge of the issues discussed in the interview. The dietitians who provided the historical account

of dietetics practice from colonial times were selected because some of them practiced during the time see more of the events described and therefore had capacity to describe SB431542 supplier the vivid experiences of the times described. Hand-written notes were taken during all the KII. In some of the KII, audio recording was carried out with the permission of the respondent. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the Noguchi Memorial institute for Medical Research. All respondents participated voluntarily in the study, after endorsing an informed consent document explaining the procedures of the study. Information obtained from the survey and the KII were triangulated and integrated to describe the history of dietetics practice in Ghana. The small sample size of dietitians and interns in the survey precluded statistical analysis. Thus dietitians and interns perceptions stated in the survey were summarized using an inductive content analysis process which allowed categorization of themes reported in order to answer the key research question: what is the state of dietetics practice in Ghana, historically and currently? Similar inductive content analysis was also used to identify the key themes in the KII data. Results History of dietetics From the perspective of retired dietitians, three key periods in the evolution of the dietetics profession in Ghana can be identified.