Do You Know How Ontario Dietitians Stay Competent?

Zoomer | May 31st, 2018

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All Registered Dietitians or RDs in Ontario must participate in a quality assurance program to make sure that you and your family receive safe nutrition advice. The College of Dietitians of Ontario regulates dietitians. It sets the practice standards and enforces them so that you and your family can receive quality nutrition care from qualified nutrition professionals. All dietitians must follow the College’s Quality Assurance Program to practice in Ontario.

The Quality Assurance Program helps dietitians maintain the standards of practice set by the College.  It helps identify and address practice issues that could compromise the quality of nutrition services you receive from a dietitian.

How does this help you and your family? The Quality Assurance Program helps dietitians assess their knowledge, skills and competence so that they improve their practice throughout their career. This means you can be confident that the nutrition services they provide for you and your family are safe, competent and ethical.

The program has three mandatory components.

  1. A Self-Directed Learning Tool that requires dietitians to reflect on their practice and set learning goals every year to make sure they keep up with health nutrition trends and food science for safe nutrition care.
  2. Registered Dietitians complete an online exam called the Jurisprudence Knowledge and Assessment Tool when they first register with the College and every 5 years after that. This helps them keep up-to-date with the laws and standards that affect their practice.
  3. Each year the College randomly selects 10% of dietitians in Ontario for a practice assessment. The assessment provides dietitians with feedback about their practice from patients and colleagues. It also identifies dietitians who need more help or more training in their practice.

If ever you have questions about how your dietitian stays competent, feel free to ask her. You can also get more information about the Quality Assurance Program at www.collegeofdietitians.org. Click here to watch the video: