Unit rationale, description and aim
Building on earlier theoretical and practice placement units, this unit provides students with the opportunity to further develop their skills to practice as a dietitian. They will be expected to develop expert knowledge in disease pathophysiology and the dietetic management of food and nutrition related problems including renal disease, metabolic disorders, cystic fibrosis, cancer, parenteral feeding, and dietetics in intensive care for application in advanced individual case management. Students will complete a practice placement where they can extend their individual case management experience in acute care, apply their understanding of food and nutrition science, and public health in a community-focused placement or develop their food service experience in a placement that focuses on the provision of food to individual clients. This unit aims to support students to develop further nutrition management planning skills and opportunity to demonstrate their progression in development of competence to practice as a dietitian.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Critically examine dietary change counselling for ...
Learning Outcome 01
Effectively apply the nutrition management process...
Learning Outcome 02
Demonstrate client-centred solutions to food and n...
Learning Outcome 03
Critically reflect on professional attributes, abi...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
This unit includes topics related to the development and demonstration of professional dietetic practice and competence according to the Accreditation Standards of Dietitians Australia. These are described under the heading ‘Building professional dietetic practice’ in each unit outline and build on topics delivered synchronously and progressively throughout the degree. Those in bold reflect ‘new’ topics addressed in this unit. Students will have opportunities for collecting evidence of competence in these, and in other areas (italics).
Building professional dietetic practice
- reflection and evaluation of practice, peer support and assessment
- acknowledges, reflects and understands own values, beliefs, attitudes, biases and assumptions privilege and power, at the individual and systems level, and their influence on practice
- scope of practice and standards of care, codes of conduct
- continuing professional development
- attributes (empathy, flexibility, adaptability, resilience, ethical, respectful, demonstrates integrity, honesty, fairness, critical thinker)
- workload and time management, prioritising workload
- excellence of practice
- feedback cycles
- client-centred approach to practice
- digital literacy/technological proficiency
- culturally safe and responsive practice (requiring emotional, spiritual and cultural intelligence)
- active listening, interpersonal and interviewing skills
- collaboration and communication skills with stakeholders
- systematically acquires, evaluates and applies findings into practice
- appropriate decision-making
- critical, proactive problem-solving approach to practice
- reflection of own personal health and wellbeing
- communication skills for conflict resolution
- taking responsibility for own actions
- documenting in accordance with accepted industry standards
- resource, team worker, leader
- different roles of the dietitian in practice
- mentor-mentee relationships
- learning contracts
This unit requires the completion of 22 days of placement. Content delivery is arranged as required to support these placements and the underpinning theoretical components.
This content includes:
Food and nutrition assessment in practice environments
- consolidation of data collection, collation, interpretation, recording of data
Nutrition management in practice environments
- consolidating food and nutrition issue assessment (nutrition diagnoses in ICM) and collaborative, client-centred and tailored goal formation, implementation, and review, including discharge planning and/or referral to other services where appropriate
- advanced dietary change counselling to build self-efficacy for making sustainable, positive food, nutrition and health changes in individuals including motivational interviewing, mindfulness and non-dieting approaches
- advocating and capacity building for food and nutrition change in practice
- continued translation of current food and nutrition science and dietetic best practice into practical advice
- record keeping in keeping with placement standards
Disease pathophysiology and management, and individual nutrition care in practice environments with a focus on the following conditions:
- renal disease,
- metabolic disorders,
- cystic fibrosis,
- cancer,
- parenteral feeding, and
- dietetics in intensive care
- and including the role of the dietitian in advanced care planning
Preparation for placement
Both professional practice and performance will be directed by the university and the appointed placement supervisor at the host organisation, through a pre-defined and monitored set of criteria which encompass:
- ability to perform elements of individual case management of clients, completion of defined project or project element/s, or other, defined placement activity
- professional practices/attributes to be demonstrated whilst undertaking the experience
- ability to seek, respond to and provide feedback from clients (carers etc.) the healthcare team, the community, other stakeholders, and supervisors
- overall student performance throughout the placement
Assessment strategy and rationale
Four assessments are sequenced to progressively support students' learning and development of professional competence through authentic assessment.
Assessment 1 requires students to constructively apply their learning and feedback to apply theoretical knowledge. This task requires students to critically review dietary change counselling to shape ongoing food and nutrition interventions.
Assessment 2 (graded hurdle), a series of nutrition management case studies investigating common nutrition-related conditions, extends the development of individual case management skills through the nutrition care process. These case studies allow students to progress their professional competence from advanced beginner to competent whilst allowing assessment of students’ knowledge. This task is a hurdle as it is the only task students can demonstrate an appropriate level of competency in the nutrition care process.
Assessment 3 (graded hurdle) extends the professional practice portfolio. In addition to continuing to collect evidence of developing professional competence, students will reflect on the final assessment of placement and articulate a plan for continued development of professional competence. This task is a hurdle to ensure students demonstrate the competency standards required by Dietitians Australia.
Assessment 4 (ungraded hurdle) is the successful of 22 days of professional practice placement. This task is a hurdle to ensure students demonstrate the competency standards required by Dietitians Australia.
Overview of assessments
To pass the unit, students must demonstrate that they have achieved each learning outcome, passed any graded or ungraded hurdle tasks and obtain a total mark of 50% in the unit as the minimum standard.
Completing 100% of placement hours is a requirement to pass this unit. Students are required to submit a medical certificate or statutory declaration for any professional experience placement hours missed. An interim grade of “IP” will be made if 100% attendance at the professional experience placement is not achieved.
Assessment 1: Written assessment task Enables st...
Assessment 1: Written assessment task
Enables students to critically review dietary change counselling to shape ongoing food and nutrition interventions.
30%
Assessment 2: Case Studies (*Graded Hurdle) Enab...
Assessment 2: Case Studies (*Graded Hurdle)
Enables students to demonstrate their ability to interpret and apply evidence related to the nutrition management in different settings.
*Graded Hurdle
40%
Assessment 3: Multi-media assessment task (*Grade...
Assessment 3: Multi-media assessment task (*Graded Hurdle)
Enables students to synthesise their professional practice portfolio evidence, their ability to reflect on their placement, their supervisor's assessment of placement, and to develop a learning contract for their following placement.
*Graded Hurdle
30%
**Ungraded hurdle Completion of 22 days of place...
**Ungraded hurdle
Completion of 22 days of placement.
**Ungraded Hurdle
*If a student has not achieved a mark of ≥ 50% for the graded hurdles, one re-attempt may be offered for each to allow demonstration of an appropriate level of competency. The offer of one re-submission will only be made if the student has also successfully completed the ungraded professional practice placement hurdle.
**If a student has not successfully completed the ungraded hurdle, additional placement time (up to one third of total placement time) may be offered to allow demonstration of an appropriate level of competency.
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit will be delivered over 12 weeks with a staggered arrangement of theory and practice, with a concentration of theory in the early weeks and placement in the latter weeks.
The learning and teaching strategy adopted aligns with the sequencing of the learning outcomes and consists of three phases that are designed to provide students with a developmental learning experience. The unit begins with approaches designed to support further consolidation of specialist knowledge and application for individual case management in dietetic practice, the assessment of nutritional status, nutrition management planning, dietary counselling for less common food and nutrition-related conditions. The approaches used to facilitate students’ learning include online learning modules and readings. The unit then builds on this theoretical knowledge and assists students to develop understanding and then application through practical skills development first through case studies and role play and then practice placement. Overall, the approaches used in this unit have a constructively aligned developmental sequence designed to progressively, and logically support, students learning in ways that maximise the perceived (and actual) relevance and value of each stage. As an overarching strategy, this is expected to engender high levels of engagement, efficiency, and effectiveness in students’ study behaviours, and to maximise their learning achievements. This strategy and approaches will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit. Learning and teaching approaches will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in learning activities.