Janna Lutze¹
Meredith Kennedy¹
1 Discipline of Nutrition & Dietetics, University of Wollongong 

 

At the University of Wollongong, Nutrition and Dietetics students complete an integrated penultimate year subject (Dietetics Care) that incorporates learning on medical nutrition therapy alongside behavioural counselling and communication. The subject also embeds professional practice skills and behaviours that reflect the National Competency Standards for Dietitians in Australia. 

To prepare students for their final year of professional placement, the following assessment innovations, which showcase current authentic work tasks of dietitians in practice, were implemented. 

The first task was a telehealth consultation to carers of a simulated client. The carer actors were provided with a scripted case and the student dietitian was responsible for coordinating the appointment, preparing relevant prioritised education information and delivering an interactive session in a 15-minute zoom appointment. The appointment was recorded and assessed by two dietitian subject coordinators. This authentic task reflected the increased experiences of dietitians and placement students participating in telehealth consultations following the COVID19 pandemic. The carers were role played by current placement students providing them with opportunity to provide peer mentoring and feedback to students in the year below. 

The second task was interprofessional counselling consultations with exercise science students. Interprofessional pairs conducted telehealth consultations with an authentic community client to support healthy lifestyle interventions. Prior to and after each of the counselling sessions, students engaged with each other and a supervising dietitian or exercise physiologist to discuss their planned strategies and learnings from the experience. Reflective practice was also embedded into this assessment task. 

The final task was the addition of student-led feedback to the dietary counselling exam utilising the Pendleton feedback model. This reflects the most common feedback model reported from dietitian supervisors and aimed to enhance students real time feedback. 

These authentic WIL assessment tasks have enhanced the development of professional skills and behaviours essential for consultations in practice. 

References (maximum three) 

Centre for Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE). Interprofessional Education Guidelines. 2017. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://www.caipe.org/resources/publications/caipe-publications/caipe-2017- interprofessional-education-guidelines-barr-h-ford-j-gray-r-helme-m-hutchings-m-low-h- machin-reeves-s 

Dietitians Australia (DA). National Competency Standards for Dietitians in Australia. 2021. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://dietitiansaustralia.org.au/working-dietetics/standards-and- scope/national-competency-standards-dietitians 

Pendleton D, Schofield T, Tate P, Havelock P. The consultation: an approach to learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1984.