What makes a professional dietitian?
Professionalism goes beyond a dietitians’ attitude and beliefs (at an individual level). It encompasses how they interact and relate and communicate with others and how they approach their work to ensure what they are doing is safe and effective. Janeane Dart has developed a model to help define and describe professionalism in dietetics, with the hope to be able to assist educators, students and practitioners to talk about and learn about professionalism with each other.
Professionalism of healthcare practitioners is central to safe, ethical, and dignified healthcare. It forms part of the trust that the public places in healthcare practitioners [1]. Patients (clients) need to feel respected, well cared for and communicated with. They need to be cared for using the best evidence base, and to feel safe and supported throughout their care.
However, at present, there is very little published research to guide teaching and assessing of professionalism in dietetics, unlike some of the other healthcare professions. Historically, dietitians have relied on role models at home or university, placement supervisors and then managers and colleagues to learn on the job, sometimes with an element of luck in the quality of these mentors. It is a hard area to teach and assess [2, 3] and clearer descriptions and more thorough understandings are required for the dietetic profession [4].
After identifying this gap in research, Monash Nutrition researcher and educator Janeane Dart decided to explore how professionalism is currently defined for dietetic education, with the results of her review recently published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. They found only seven peer-reviewed research papers on the topic for dietetics worldwide. From there, further research into competency standards set by dietetics associations around the world were investigated to explore the topic further [5].
Janeane and her team discovered that professionalism can be a difficult thing for people to understand, explaining that “it’s not black and white, and some people find it hard to discuss”. She went on to ask “have you ever felt like you’ve seen unprofessional behaviour, but haven’t always been able to say exactly what it was?”
As a result of the study findings, Janeane developed a model to help define and describe professionalism in dietetics, with the hope to be able to assist educators, students and practitioners to talk about and learn about professionalism with each other. “Professionalism goes beyond a dietitians’ attitude and beliefs (at an individual level). It encompasses how they interact and relate and communicate with others and how they approach their work to ensure what they are doing is safe and effective” commented Janeane. “Also professionalism is about being committed to lifelong learning and developing yourself and your practice”.
Through this review, the following four key areas were identified as central to professionalism in dietetics:
1) Personal attributes
2) Interpersonal communication
3) Approach to practice
4) Commitment to lifelong learning
Janeane is leading ongoing research across Australia and New Zealand in this important area. The purpose is to be able to develop a better understanding of the professionalism dilemmas that occur, and ways to strengthen professionalism teaching and learning for the dietetic profession.
Defining professionalism for nutrition and dietetics supports progress toward shared understandings; building trust with the public, assisting in dietetics education at both university and on work placement, and raising quality and standards within the nutrition and dietetics discipline [5]. Strengthening the professionalism of dietitians and other members of the healthcare team is a key strategy in enabling safe and effective healthcare.
More information
Janeane Dart is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and works as a Senior Lecturer and researcher (PhD Candidate) in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University. Her current research focuses on exploring Professionalism in dietetic education in Australia and New Zealand, preparation of graduates and dietetic education and assessment more broadly. Click here to access Janeane’s research profile. You can follow Janeane on Twitter via @JaneaneDart.
Stay up to date with the Monash University Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food on Twitter via @MonashNutrition.
Publication information
Reference: Dart J, McCall L, Ash S, Blair M, Twohig C, Palermo C. Toward a Global Definition of Professionalism for Nutrition and Dietetics Education: A Systematic Review of the Literature. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2019 Mar 13. pii: S2212-2672(18)31854-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2019.01.007. [Epub ahead of print]
Click here to access the paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a Q1 ranked journal for Nutrition and Dietetics with an impact factor of 4.021.
