It is official. Professional dietitian and nutrition titles in South Africa are changing. From 2023, students who enrol for a nutrition or dietetics degree will graduate with a dietitian-nutritionist title. In the meantime, the title and scope of those registered as dietitians or nutritionists with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) will not change.
However, nutrition professionals who wish to register under the new title will need to meet the requirements and competencies of the new registered dietitian-nutritionist title. The decision came after extensive consultations with expert practitioners followed by a survey of 3845 registered dietitians. Three thousand eight hundred and forty five number sounds like an impressive.number. It’s actually a shockingly low number, which means that only 20% of eligible practitioners voted. As a profession, we need to do better.
Progress to date should be credited to the impressive amount of work undertaken by the task team appointed on 26 February 2014. The objective of the team was to address the overlapping scope of work between the two professions, Dietetics and Nutrition. According to the Professional Dietetics and Nutrition Board, which sits within the HPCSA, this review was mandated by the ” current disease profile, training of nutrition professionals, lack/ absence of community service positions for nutritionists, the local and global economic climate and a range of other factors in the nutrition environment in the country”.
In other words, the dual nutrition professions are now not fit for purpose. As the world around us goes through unprecedented change, it is encouraging to see the board proactively looking at the skills and competencies the near future will demand for nutrition and dietetics professional to remain competitive in the job market. After all, the majority of jobs of the future do not currently exist. The Work Economic Forum envisages these jobs of the future to grow by 51%.
Ten South African tertiary institutions, from Stellenbosch University to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, that currently train Dietitians and Nutritionists will design then submit applications for the new curriculum to national training authorities in preparation for the transition to the dietitian-nutritionist profession. We are certainly looking forward to seeing how this unfolds. For more information, visit the Professional Dietetics and Nutrition Board pages here.