Nutrition Accreditation Committee Update

The Partnership for Dietetic Education and Practice (PDEP), a national partnership organization involving regulators, educators and Dietitians of Canada, is responsible for developing and maintaining Canadian standards for dietetic education. The Integrated Competencies for Dietetics Education and Practice – 2013 (ICDEP) were developed under PDEP`s direction as were the revised accreditation standards for Dietetics Education programs in Canada.

Accredited programs are reviewed every seven years, at which time the program does a self-study and has a site visit by accreditors.  The nutrition and dietetics program at the U. of S. is a fully accredited program with its next site visit scheduled for October 26-27, 2015.

In Summer 2014, we were informed by Dietitians of Canada of our accreditation site visit (October 2015).  In Fall we formed an Accreditation Committee:

  • Dr. G. Zello, Professor and Acting Assistant Dean for Nutrition, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition
  • Dr. S. Berenbaum, Professor and DC Program Director, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition
  • N. Haskey, Coordinator of Nutrition and Dietetic Practice, Saskatoon Health Region
  • H. Tulloch, Coordinator of Nutrition and Dietetics Practice, Regina Qu`Appelle Health Region
  • S. Mulhall, Coordinator, Assessment and Evaluation, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition

Since that time we have:

  • worked with M. Wyatt, Director of Professional Affairs, DC, to choose a site visit date
  • reviewed all key documents for accreditation
  • reviewed the six accreditation standards and the material that might be needed to prepare the self-study
  • began collecting the material for preparation of self-study report
  • prepared a time-line for completion of report
  • determined a communications plan for keeping stakeholders informed of the process
  • began writing the self-study report (we are in the process of working through each of the standards; we have two writing teams, one for the academic program (Years 1-3) and one for the practicum program (Year 4)

For more information on the accreditation process, please contact Dr. S. Berenbaum at 306-966-5836;Shawna.berenbaum@usask.ca