Health clinic readiness to implement nutrition supports in partnership with SNAP-Ed

Objective: To assess the readiness of health clinics to implement nutrition support strategies in partnership with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) program. Design: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Setting: South Carolina. Participants: A convenience sample of key informants (n = 26) from health clinics (n = 15) interested in partnering with the SNAP-Ed program. Phenomenon of Interest: Health clinic readiness to implement nutrition supports, including motivation, current capacities, and capacity-building needs. Analysis: Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analyzed descriptively and thematically. Results: Clinics were most interested in implementing food insecurity screenings and making referrals to resources for accessing nutritious foods and produce prescription programs. Motivation was largely driven by a commitment to prevent chronic disease and on the basis of past success implementing a healthy eating strategy. A wide range of current capacities and capacity-building needs to implement strategies of interest were identified. Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest the readiness of some clinics to partner with SNAP-Ed to implement nutrition support strategies and identifies early insights on areas practitioners might need to engage clinics in for capacity-building. Some implementers might need further training before having their own capacity to support clinics in the wide range of nutrition support strategies included, which could be explored in future studies.