Abstract

Major health issues threatening the nation include increasing diabetes, obesity and an ageing population. These challenges demand a competent nutrition and dietetics workforce. Nutrition and dietetics professionals practise across the continuum of care, including patient management, food service and community nutrition. The professional entry-level Competency Standards are used to guide assessment of competence in the education of dietitians throughout Australia. A range of different assessment methods are used in programs to determine competence for commencement in the workforce, however their reliability and validity is unknown. This project aims to align professional Competency Standards with threshold learning outcomes, test the validity and reliability of competence assessment and improve the consistency of assessment processes of nutrition and dietetics graduates nationally. It will engage all universities involved in educating dietitians and build the capacity of nutrition and dietetics educators to assess competence. Accurate and supportive competence assessment is essential for the evaluation of student progression and for creating positive student learning experiences.