Strengthening Undergraduate Human Nutrition and Dietetics Training in Uganda: The Need to Adopt Competency-Based Education

Abstract

Competency-based education (CBE) is advocated for, to improve the competence of professionals for health systems performance in the 21st century. Limited evidence of efforts in advancing CBE in the training of Human Nutrition/Human Nutrition and Dietetics (HN/HND) at the undergraduate level exists in Uganda.  Failing to develop and validate competencies required of HN/HND professionals to perform in Uganda’s health systems may limit advances towards CBE of HN/HND in the country, lead to the adoption of inappropriate competencies, and cause inefficient investments in HN/HND professional education. The purpose of this review, therefore, is to create awareness for the need to: (1) identify competencies required of HN/HND professionals to competently perform in Uganda’s health systems and (2) develop and validate a competency-based undergraduate HN/HND education model suitable for use in Uganda.

Keywords: Competence, Competency, Competency-based Education, Health professionals, Human Nutrition and Dietetics Competencies, and Validation

Funding: This review was made possible courtesy of a grant from the Kyambogo University African Development Bank Higher Education Science and Technology Project and the PEARS Research Grant from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Author disclosure: Peterson Kato Kikomeko, Sophie Ochola, Irene Ogada, Archileo N. Kaaya, and Peace Nakitto have no conflict of interest.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-21-08

Publication date:July 31^st 2019