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.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 17, 2019
Accepted:
August 6,
2019
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
