Equipping nutrition graduates for the complex realities of practice: Using practitioner perspectives and experiences to inform authentic sustainability curriculum.

Background: Nutrition professionals function at the nexus of food, nutrition status and the myriad of determinants influencing these. However, defining our role in food system transformation requires a multifaceted and deep understanding of sustainability in the context of nutrition and dietetics (N&D). Practitioner perspectives and experiences provide a rich source of practice wisdom that can inform authentic curriculum to equip students for the complex realities of practice; however, there is limited understanding of these in the Australian higher education setting.

Sustainability in Nutrition: Potential Guiding Statements for Education and Practice.

Objective: To explore and synthesize local and practice-based perspectives of sustainability to develop a set of proposed guiding thematic statements that will assist academics to contextualize, prioritize, and integrate sustainability-focused activities or a sustainability lens in a nutrition and dietetic (N&D) program.

Design: Participatory action research process using an online survey, workshop, and interviews.

Setting: Australian Regional University.