NUTR29012 - Dietetics Practice and Communication

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit extends your knowledge of medical nutrition therapy and develops your professional and interpersonal skills. As a part of this unit, you will complete pre-placement workshops, and hospital and foodservice visits. You will explore the professional footprint of a dietitian in terms of risk, duty of care and scope of practice. Within this unit, you will build skills in using a systematic approach in applying the nutrition care process. You will use various biochemical, clinical and nutrition-related indices in order to arrive at a nutrition diagnosis and develop your skills in reviewing menus and recipe modification to meet specific needs. You will develop your skills in dietetic practice by integrating a range of learning, educational, communication, counselling, self-management and behaviour change theories into the delivery of evidence-based client-centred counselling and educational sessions. As part of this process, you will gain practical skills to translate pathophysiological, dietetic and nutritional knowledge into effective diet-disease relationships that increase a client’s sense of self-efficacy and motivation to change. These skills lay the groundwork for your subsequent placement experiences and future dietetics practice.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 12
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.25
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisites:

  • NUTR28003 Nutrition Assessment in Practice

Co-requisites:

  • NUTR29002 Medical Nutrition Therapy

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

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Residential School Compulsory Residential School
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Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 1 - 2024

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 40%
2. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) 30%
3. Practical Assessment 30%
4. Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books 0%
5. Professional Practice Placement 0%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Critically analyse the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) in the context of various diseases and conditions
  2. Collect and critically evaluate clinical, biochemical, nutrition-related and sociodemographic data to determine nutritional status of individuals
  3. Evaluate and modify menu plans and recipes to provide safe and culturally appropriate diets to meet specific requirements
  4. Critically evaluate the current use of established and emerging behaviour change theories and techniques within contemporary dietetic practice
  5. Demonstrate competency in translating pathophysiological and technical information into practical and actionable advice appropriate for a range of audiences
  6. Demonstrate personal, professional, management and work place skills required for dietetic practice.

Learning outcomes of this unit are linked to the following domains of the 2021 Dietitian Association of Australia’s (DAA) National Competency Standards for Dietitians in Australia:

  • Domain 1: Professional Practice
  • Domain 2: Expert Practice
  • Domain 4: Collaborative Practice

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Written Assessment • • • •
2 - Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) • • • •
3 - Practical Assessment • • •
4 - Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books • •
5 - Professional Practice Placement • • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Advanced Level
• Professional Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Knowledge • • • • • •
2 - Communication • • • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • •
4 - Research • •
5 - Self-management •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Advanced Level
• Professional Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8