Nutrition-related competencies in undergraduate training of health professionals in Poland: a descriptive analysis of educational standards

Professional nutritional recommendations can help improve the health of patients. The role of dietitians in therapeutic teams is becoming more significant; however, dietetics is not considered a standardised occupation in Poland yet. In 2023 Polish parliament adopted the Act on Certain Medical Professions, but dietitians remain not included. We aimed to identify the nutrition-related competencies of graduates from different health professional programmes and to describe the dietary care competencies acquired during undergraduate training. We conducted a descriptive and comparative analysis of official governmental documents on educational standards for healthcare professionals’ bachelor’s and master’s programmes. The extracted learning objectives were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. The educational standards of 10 healthcare professional programmes at both bachelor’s and master’s levels were analysed. The number of nutrition-related learning objectives ranged from 0 to 16, while the total number of objectives varied between 158 and 320. Pharmacy and nursing programmes contained the highest number of nutrition-related learning objectives, while none were identified in the standards for paramedics, laboratory diagnostics, and physiotherapy. Seven themes were identified: nutritional knowledge, food technology, nutritional assessment, impact of diet on therapies, medical nutrition therapy, nutritional counselling, and prophylaxis. None of the programmes provided comprehensive training in nutritional care. Polish health professionals receive inconsistent nutrition training and lack comprehensive qualifications to provide dietary care. Further legal actions are required to enhance patient quality of care and integrate dietitians fully into the healthcare system. Until then, the educational standards require improved comprehensiveness and consistency.