Developing National Conceptual Understanding to Describe Entry-to-Practice Dietetics Competence

Abstract

Objective: Develop consensus on entrustable professional activities (EPAs) and milestones for students, practice educators, and academics that need shared understanding to assess entry-level competence in dietetics.

Design: An iterative, pragmatic, 3 key-phase approach involving workshops, a consensus survey with job description and consultation.

Setting: Australia.

Participants: A total of 58 academics and 43 practitioners with expertise in competency-based assessment in dietetics were purposefully selected to participate in 4 national workshops. Of those selected, 36 completed a survey that sought consensus on the EPAs and milestones drafted at the workshops (36% response rate).

Phenomenon of interest: Support for competency-based assessment.

Analysis: Level of agreement on the survey was set at ≥70%. These comments were triangulated with content analysis from 98 entry-level job descriptions.

Results: Consensus on 4 key tasks of the profession with associated descriptions of the level of performance were included to implement a nutrition intervention; facilitate a food, nutrition, and/or lifestyle conversation; perform professional activities and projects; and work as part of a team.

Conclusions and implications: Identification of the key minimum tasks of a dietitian upon entry-to-practice, together with developmental descriptors of performance, provides clarity in the expected progression and end point of assessment. This resource will support competency-based assessment decisions. The international transferability of this warrants further investigation.

Keywords: competence; dietetics; education; milestone.