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Curriculum design for professional development in public health nutrition in Britain†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1998

Jacqueline Landman ,
Judith Buttriss  and
Barrie Margetts
Jacqueline Landman*
Affiliation:
Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh EH12 8TS, UK
Judith Buttriss
Affiliation:
National Dairy Council, London W1M OAP, UK
Barrie Margetts
Affiliation:
Institute of Human Nutrition, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
*
*Coresponding author: E-mail: j.landman@mail.qmced.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Objective:

To describe how the Nutrition Society developed public health nutrition as a profession between 1992 and 1997, and to analyse the influences propelling on this professionalization.

Design:

Qualitative case study.

Setting:

Britain.

Results:

The Nutrition Society of Britain consulted with various stakeholders (such as dietitians, researchers, professionals and practitioners and educators from the UK, and latterly from mainland Europe) to build a consensus about the definition, roles and functions of public health nutritionists and the need for, and scope of, this new profession. Building on this consensus, the Society developed a curriculum in line with British national nutrition policy. Analysis shows that the design and philosophy of the curriculum is explicitly international and European in orientation, in keeping with the tradition of the discipline and the Society. The curriculum is designed in terms of specialist competencies in public health nutrition, defining competency so that registered public health nutritionists are advanced practitioners or leaders: this is in keeping with contemporary trends in professional education generally and as expressed by the UNU/IUNS and at Bellagio, in nutrition in particular.

Conclusions:

Despite a unique relationship with British state and policy, this case of professionalization contributes to contemporary international inter- and intraprofessional debates about the nature of public health nutrition and is consistent with professional educational theory.

Keywords

Public health nutritionCurriculum designProfessional educationBritain
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 69 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1998

Footnotes

†

Based on a paper presented at the Third Interdisciplinary conference in Berlin, hosted by AGEV/WZB October 1997.

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