Curriculum design for professional development in public health nutrition in Britain.

OBJECTIVES To describe how the Nutrition Society developed public health nutrition as a profession between 1992 and 1997, and to analyse the influences propelling on this professionalization. DESIGN Qualitative case study. SETTING Britain. RESULTS The Nutrition Society of Britain consulted with various stakeholders (such as dietitians, researchers, professionals and practitioners and educators from the UK, and latterly from mainland Europe) to build a consensus about the definition, roles and functions of public health nutritionists and the need for, and scope of, this new profession. Building on this consensus, the Society developed a curriculum in line with British national nutrition policy. Analysis shows that the design and philosophy of the curriculum is explicitly international and European in orientation, in keeping with the tradition of the discipline and the Society. The curriculum is designed in terms of specialist competencies in public health nutrition, defining competency so that registered public health nutritionists are advanced practitioners or leaders: this is in keeping with contemporary trends in professional education generally and as expressed by the UNU/IUNS and at Bellagio, in nutrition in particular. CONCLUSIONS Despite a unique relationship with British state and policy, this case of professionalization contributes to contemporary international inter- and intraprofessional debates about the nature of public health nutrition and is consistent with professional educational theory.