FBMTEP: Dietetic Theory and Practice

Module code: FBMTEP

Module provider: Food and Nutritional Sciences; School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy

Credits: 20

Level: 7

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Mrs Dorothy Balhatchet , email: d.h.balhatchet@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s): IN THE SAME YEAR AS TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE FBMNUT AND TAKE FBMCLD (Compulsory)

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: Micro placement

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 11 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

The module will enable you to understand what safe and ethical practice is with the remit of working as a dietitian. It will give you the skills to reflect and evaluate your own practice and seek ways to improve it, to document your progress systematically and take personal responsibility for your professional development. You will also have the opportunity to undertake three weeks of practice based learning across a number of settings.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Recognise the importance of working safely and effectively within their scope of practice and within the legal and ethical boundaries of their profession
2. Critically reflect on the need to establish and maintain a safe practice environment and be able to document and assure quality and improvement in their practice
3. Understand and apply relevant professional standards for Dietitians

Module content

1. Introduction to Dietetic practice
2. Professional standards for Dietitians
3. Continuing Professional Development
4. Reflective writing
5. Consent and patient autonomy
6. Interprofessional learning and MDT working
7.  Clinical Governance
8. Introduction to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
9. Biases, prejudice and conflicts of interest
10. Developing group education
11. Model and Process for Dietetic Practice
12. Case studies to apply Model and Process for Dietetic Practice to Obesity, CVD and Diabetes to sit alongside related lectures in Clinical Dietetics module

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The topics will be divided into:

1. Lectures, seminars
2. Tutorials and case studies
3. Assessments (e.g. written assignments, presentations)

Study hours

At least 50 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Students taking the MSc Dietetics programme must also achieve a mark of at least 45% in each summative assessment.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Level 3 (i.e. foundation modules for Part 0) and Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: /cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

• Discussion boards, workshop feedback
• Case studies on professional practice
• Peer-to-peer learning
• Practice-based learning supervision and portfolio feedback systems

Reassessment

Additional costs