Novel dietetics curricula to address new DA Competency Standard: Cultural safety and responsiveness

Background:Revisions to the 2021 National CompetencyStandards (NCS) for Dietitians in Australia articulatednew requirements for‘cultural safety and responsiveness’,acknowledging‘attitudes, biases, assumptions, privilegeand power at individual and systems level’and the impactof‘colonisation, systemic racism and so forth’.onineq-uities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpeoples. This requires pedagogical and philosophical shiftsfocusing on reflection, learning and unlearning that maybe uncomfortable.
Aim:To describe university curriculum changes toaddress NCS on cultural safety and responsiveness.
Methods:Curriculum redesign was undertaken at Mon-ash University during 2021–2022 in consultation withplacement partners and students and led by the teachingteam. Learning outcomes, content and assessment wererevised and mapped to the NCS. Learning experienceswere developed integrating research and theory on inter-pretivism, critical pedagogy, critical reflexivity and cul-tural safety.
Results:Curriculum changes include workshops ontruth-telling, strengths/deficit language, diversified waysof knowing and being, racism and colonisation, powerand privilege, intersectionality and critical allyship, andan interprofessional online module on anti-racism andaffirmative action in healthcare. Informed by transforma-tive learning theory, assessment includes audio diaries,critical reflection to identify learning transformation, andcreating action plans targeted towards cultural safety andresponsiveness in dietetic practice.
Conclusion:These novel, theory and research informedcurriculum changes are an example of how universitiescan integrate the new NCS into dietetic education andsupport cultural safety and responsiveness for our profes-sion moving forward. Future plans include evaluatingtheir impact of on students’transformative learning.