NUTR603 - Engaging with Communities

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

NUTR500 Advanced Culinary Nutrition Science in Practice

Unit rationale, description and aim

Engagement with community provides the opportunity for health professionals to work closely and collaboratively with groups of people towards a community prioritised goal. Within the food and nutrition context, this often translates to programs that improve food and nutrition literacy of community members, provide a solution to a food system problem, or address a policy gap. Through an immersive experience, students will gain experience in working alongside community leaders and members on a problem that impacts the food and nutrition status of the members of the community. They will be provided opportunity to actively participate in solving this problem. Students can opt, and will be supported, to undertake this experience in either a local, interstate, or overseas location, where possible. This unit aims to provide students with an opportunity to develop and/or enhance adjacent skills in culturally safe practice, empathy, flexibility, adaptability, teamworking, collaboration, leadership, and social responsibility while creatively and realistically addressing a real food and nutrition problem.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Critically examine the principles of community engagement to help transform food and nutrition problems into solutions (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA9, GA10)

LO2 - Demonstrate advanced cultural safety in practice, collaboration, teamwork and leadership and proactive problem-solving skills in a community environment (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA9)

LO3 - Reflect and report on the factors that impact of the success of food and nutrition interventions in communities (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA9, GA10)

LO4 - Reflect on the personal journey throughout the placement and how learning can be applied to ongoing personal and professional development (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA9, GA10)

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

This unit requires the completion of 15 days of community engagement placement. Content delivery is arranged as required to support these placements and the underpinning theoretical components. This content includes:

• principles of community engagement and reflectiveness
• application of principles and practices for solving food and nutrition problems
• cultural intelligence, especially when working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, Culturally and linguistically diverse and other diverse groups, in diverse areas e.g. locally and internationally
• professionalism in work contexts
• food and nutrition problems of placement location

Both professional practice and performance will be directed by the university and the appointed placement supervisor at the host organisation, through a pre-defined and monitored set of criteria which encompass:

• completion of defined project or project element/s
• professional practices/attributes to be demonstrated whilst undertaking the experience
• ability to seek, respond to and provide feedback from community and supervisors
• overall student performance throughout the placement

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The unit content will be delivered intensively over 4 weeks. The theory component will be delivered over a 1-week period followed by the practical component.

In keeping with the sequence of learning outcomes in this unit, the learning and teaching strategy adopted comprises three key phases that are designed to provide students with a developmental learning experience. These phases relate to understanding and practice of community engagement as a vehicle to solve food and nutrition problems. The unit therefore begins with approaches designed to assist students actively participate in preparation for a community engagement placement, which will differ according to the location of placement i.e. onshore or offshore. The unit then proceeds first to the case study and then to the experiential component, 15 days of community placement. Overall, the approaches used in this unit have a constructively aligned developmental sequence designed to progressively, and logically, support students learning in ways that maximise the perceived (and actual) relevance and value of each stage. As an overarching strategy, this is expected to engender high levels of engagement, efficiency, and effectiveness in students’ study behaviours, and to maximise their learning achievements. This strategy and approaches will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit. Learning and teaching approaches will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in learning activities.

Assessment strategy and rationale

In this unit, three assessment tasks are sequenced to progressively support students learning in alignment with the learning and teaching strategy. A range of assessment strategies are used in ways that support the developmental sequence of the learning and teaching strategy. The first assessment task involves a written assessment task submitted prior to commencement of placement, with feedback provided during the placement. In this task students will examine the food and nutrition problems of the community of their placement and propose solutions to these problems that engage the community. The second assessment task involves students collecting evidence of how the placement experience has helped them and will continue to help them realise their personal and professional potential, and especially to enhance their cultural safety in practice. The final assessment is a supervisor assessment of performance during the practice placement and will be completed formatively mid-way through the placement and summatively at the end of placement. There is one ungraded hurdle requirement for this unit for all students, 15 days of placement. For those students undertaking placement overseas, there will be additional hurdle requirements that will relate to safe travel to that country. Combined, these assessment tasks will allow unit coordinators to assess students’ demonstration of the learning outcomes and attainment of graduate attributes.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Bucker, R. B. & Rucker, M. R. (2016). Nutrition: ethical issues and challenges. Nutrition Research. 36 (11), 1183-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nutres.2016.10.006.

Colatruglio, S. & Slater, J. (2014). Food Literacy: Bridging the Gap between Food, Nutrition and Well-Being. In F. Deer, T. Falkenberg, B. McMillan, & L. Sims (Eds.). Sustainable well-being: Concepts, issues, and educational practices (pp. 37-55). ESWB Press, Canada.

Egan, L., Butcher, J., & Ralph, K. (2008). Hope as a basis for understanding the benefits and possibilities of community engagement. Strathfield, NSW: The Institute for Advancing Community Engagement, Australian Catholic University. https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8v6zy/hope-as-a-basis-for-understanding-the-benefits-and-possibilities-of-community-engagement.

Perry, E. A., Thomas, H., Samra, H. R., Edmonstone, S. Davidson, L., Faulkner, A., … Kirkpatrick, . I. (2017). Identifying attributes of food literacy: a scoping review. Public Health Nutrition, 20(13), 2406-2415. doi:10.1017/S1368980017001276 .

Temple, N.J. & Steyn, N, (Ed.). (2016). Community Nutrition for Developing Countries, University Press, Canada.

Universities Australia. (2011). What is Cultural Competence? A Discussion of the Literature. In Universities Australia National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities. (pp. 37-41) https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/National-Best-Practice-Framework-for-Indigenous-Cultural-Competency-in-Australian-Universities.pdf.

Worsley, T. (2008). Nutrition Promotion: Theories and methods, systems and settings. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.