Catherine Morley, PhD, RD, FDC and her research team spent the past two years looking at how to help dietitians develop approaches to nutrition education with the view to optimizing client outcomes. Their study, funded by the Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research (CFDR) is entitled “Developing Evidence-based Client-Centred Nutrition Education Practice Points.”

Catherine shared information on the research project during CFDR’s Annual General Meeting and Research Breakfast at the end of November. Standing before a wallhanging illustrating some of the cacophony that consumers encounter through magazine and book covers, advertisements, news articles, cookbooks for people living with various medical conditions or for specific diet restrictions (e.g., low carb diets; the obesity epidemic; cooking for diabetes), she told the audience that the public is bombarded daily with messages about eating. “How does a nutrition educator break through all this “noise” to help clients figure out what actions they will take?” she asked.

The purpose of the research project was three-fold: to develop practice guidelines to inform nutrition education practice and training; to connect these guidelines to health status; and to build capacity for dietetic research. The research team recognized that preparation for nutrition education and counselling is neither standard nor defined; rather it is based on the instructors’ views, theories or a combination of both. They wanted to develop standardized, evidence-based, client centred nutrition education practice points that dietetics educators could use in planning their curricula and course content, and that preceptors could use in framing their training efforts with dietetic students.

The main research “product” is what the researchers refer to as the Collaborative Client-Centred Nutrition Education (3CNE) framework. The framework is depicted as four concentric circles, with the client/dietitian at the centre and determining his/her course of action through consideration of factors in the other rings. The 3CNE represents the ‘swirl of ideas and information processing’ that goes on in the mind of a nutrition educator while engaged in conversation with clients. It offers a foundational document for dietetics education that has national and international application, as well as a conceptual framework for further research.

To develop guidelines* to inform nutrition education practice and training
To connect ‘guidelines’ to health status
To build capacity for dietetic research (connect novice and seasoned researchers)

Dietitian survey was worthwhile (good feedback; lots of it). Consumer surveys not so (unless one wants to learn about people who typically respond to e-surveys)