APD Program
The Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) Program is the main channel for DAA's continuing professional development (CPD) activities for dietitians.
CPD is an integral part of being a professional. DAA prefers the term 'continuing professional development' to 'continuing professional education' as it is seen as broader, encompassing skill and experiential learning as well as knowledge. Continuing professional development carries the individual practitioner through from novice level, through expertise, to advanced practice where judgement enhances knowledge.
Provisional Status
Most new Accredited Practising Dietitians (APDs) are required to complete a provisional year, which includes the completion of a minimum 26-week mentoring partnership. There is an alternative process to achieve full status for experienced and practising dietitians who meet the strict eligibility criteria.
For provisional APDs the requirements for transition to full APD status are:
- Membership of the program for at least twelve months; and
- Submission of a satisfactory log of continuing professional development (CPD) activities on a regular basis for a minimum of twelve months; and
- Satisfactorily completed the mentoring requirement and submitted the form Report at the End of a Mentoring Period.
CPD requirements for the APD Program
DAA encourages all APDs to undertake a range of CPD activities as part of their CPD plan. The theory of adult learning requires the learner to be actively engaged in the learning process. This type of learning, often referred to as ‘active’ learning, has been demonstrated to be more effective.
The APD program has seven modules that outline a range of possible CPD activity types. APDs are not required to complete activities in each module however they are strongly encouraged to undertake a broad range of learning experiences and approaches.
The seven modules are:
- Professional Education - Non Assessed (capped at 20 hours per year)
- Professional Education - Assessed
- Self-study activities (capped at 20 hours per year)
- Evidence based activity
- Mentee / mentor activity
- Quality improvement activity
- DAA strategic activity
All APDs must log at least 30 hours of CPD every year. APDs can log as many hours as they desire in all but two module areas. Professional education that is not assessed and ‘self study’ are both capped at 20 hours a year (i.e. no more than 20 hours can be logged per year for each of these CPD types). This requirement is designed to encourage APDs to approach their CPD broadly and to focus where possible on active forms of CPD that have been shown to have better learning outcomes.
Practice Development Areas
The five practice development areas link directly to the DAA Advanced Practitioner (AdvAPD) framework. They provide the opportunity for all APDs to plan a comprehensive approach to their professional development. Over time this approach can lead APDs to develop the breadth of knowledge and skills required by the Advanced APD Program.
The practice development areas are:
- Leadership & Influence: activities that develop leadership and strategic thinking skills and increase capacity to lead positive change for nutrition and dietetics, to lead effective teams and to be influential in organisations
- Professional Competence: activities that develop your expertise in dietetic practice which include excellence in practice
- Research & Evaluation: activities that develop research and evaluation skills including research and evaluation in everyday practice
- Education, supervision and mentoring: activities that develop skills in supervision, mentoring and education and training
- Strategic and reflective approaches: activities that develop skills in quality improvement, planning and strategic approaches to service development.
