Third year Public Health unit, Medical Nutrition Therapy 1 PUB541: written nutrition care plan
Developed by Dr Philippa Lyons-Wall and Moira Cordiner
Philippa wanted to do a criteria sheet for a QUT unit that had not been revised using CRA principles. A new set of objectives was written from the original.
These new objectives informed the criteria for this task, thus the criteria were still aligned to the original objectives. This exercise demonstrates that you can
develop criteria sheets that relate to existing objectives, even when these objectives are flawed and/or unmanageable in number.
Synopsis of the task and its context
Students individually devise a care plan to suit the person described in the case study. To do this, they follow the steps of the Nutrition Care Plan Framework
and associated guidelines. The framework is a systematic problem-solving method that requires students to collect nutrition data about the client, make
calculations, assess the client’s nutritional status, make a nutritional diagnosis in the form of PESS statements (that is: problem, etiology, signs, and
symptoms), devise nutrition interventions and ways of monitoring and evaluating how successful they were for the client. The plan comprises no more than 4
pages, with additional pages for references and appendices. The appendices contain supporting calculations for energy and nutrient intake and requirements,
and state any assumptions used to inform these. The plan is to be written as if the student was a practising clinical dietitian. Therefore, it has to serve the
client’s needs and be a concise and professional looking document that uses medical terminology relevant to the case study.
Match between objectives/learning outcomes and criteria for the task
Objectives (unrevised)
On completion of this unit you should be able to:
Task specific criteria
To complete this task you need to
1. Demonstrate knowledge of the medical and surgical treatment of selected medical conditions.
2. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of the principles of nutrition support (when appropriate) within the nutritional
care plan.
1. Demonstrate knowledge of data collection and
calculations for client requirements
3. Collect appropriate data to individualise diets in a clinical setting to meet nutritional and therapeutic needs.
Demonstrate critical thinking skills and an evidence based approach to identify key issues and develop a nutritional
care plan for a client in a clinical setting.
2. Apply critical thinking skills to the nutrition
assessment and diagnosis
 Analyse information from sources
 Assess case study data to identify the issues
 Summarise the nutrition diagnosis (PESS)
 Develop care plan for nutrition intervention and
monitoring
3. Communicate in professional writing style
5. Communicate the diet-disease process in the context of the nutritional care plan, using appropriate medical
terminology for an individual in a clinical setting.
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Interpreting the criteria sheet
Note that this criteria sheet uses some descriptors (bullet points) across standards (HD to Pass). This is because, in Philippa’s judgment, there is little to
distinguish students in these instances. For example, for criterion 2 (Apply critical thinking), the last descriptor is the same for each of standards High
Distinction (HD) and Distinction (DN). Likewise for the first two descriptors for criterion 3 (Communicate). To differentiate between standards HD and DN,
the other descriptors are used.
This way of setting out standards can help you avoid ‘contriving’ a difference between the standards when, in some instances, there are no differences.
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TASK SPECIFIC CRITERIA
High Distinction
In developing your nutrition care
plan, you:
Demonstrate knowledge of
data collection and
calculations for client
requirements
Apply critical thinking
skills to the nutrition
assessment and diagnosis
 Analyse information
from sources
 Assess case study data
to identify the issues
 Summarise the nutrition
diagnosis (PESS)
 demonstrated comprehensive
knowledge of data collection to
inform assessment of client’s
intake and estimated
requirements by:
 using correct equations and
dietary tools
 accurately calculating all
relevant data and giving valid
reasons
 critically analysed interrelationships between the
information in detail and
correctly identified all key
issues (both stated and
implied) in relation to client’s
risk profile
 summarised a plausible
nutrition diagnosis in the form
of simple, well structured and
internally consistent PESS
statement(s) in which:
 statements were nutritionfocussed and linked to all the
key issues
Distinction
In developing your nutrition care
plan, you
 demonstrated well-developed
knowledge of data collection to
inform assessment of client’s
intake and estimated
requirements by:
 using correct equations and
dietary tools
 accurately calculating most of
the relevant data and giving
valid reasons
 devised comprehensive and
insightful recommendations in
which:
 goal statements addressed
key nutritional issues, were
prioritised, had realistic &
measurable targets, with no
overlap of ideas between
goals or strategies
In developing your nutrition care
plan, you:
 demonstrated mostly developed
knowledge of data collection to
inform assessment of client’s
intake and estimated
requirements by:
 using correct equations and
dietary tools
 accurately calculating most of
the relevant data and giving
reasons (perhaps with
extraneous detail)
 critically analysed the
information in detail and
correctly identified most of the
key issues in relation to client’s
risk profile
 analysed the existing
information in detail OR took
data at face value to correctly
identified some of the key
issues
 summarised a plausible
nutrition diagnosis in the form
of simple, well structured and
mainly internally consistent
PESS statements in which:
 summarised a plausible
nutrition diagnosis in the form
of a mainly internally consistent
PESS statements in which:
 statements were nutritionfocussed and linked to most
of the key issues
 signs, symptoms & etiology clearly supported the problem
 Develop care plan for
nutrition intervention
and monitoring:
 synthesise
recommendations
(goals & strategies)
 devise outcome
measures to monitor
Credit
 devised comprehensive
recommendations in which:
 goal statements addressed
most of the key nutritional
issues, had measurable
targets, with no overlap of
ideas between goals or
strategies
 statements were linked to
some of the key issues
 signs, symptoms & etiology
mainly supported the
problem (but may have
extraneous or non-nutritional
details)
 devised detailed
recommendations in which:
 goal statements addressed
some of the key nutritional
issues, had measurable
targets, but there was some
overlap of ideas between
goals or strategies
Pass
In developing your nutrition care
plan, you:
 demonstrated partially
developed knowledge of data
collection to inform assessment
of client’s intake and estimated
requirements by:
 using correct equations and
dietary tools
 accurately calculating some
of the relevant data and
giving occasional reasons
(perhaps with extraneous
detail)
 partially analysed the
information and identified some
key issues but may have
focussed on a single
perspective
 summarised a nutrition
diagnosis in the form of PESS
statements in which:
Fail
In developing your nutrition care
plan, you:
 used equations and dietary
tools mostly unrelated to the
task, to collect and calculate
some data
 presented a nutrition diagnosis
in the form of PESS statements
that restated given information
from the case study
 statements were tenuously
linked to the identified key
issues
 devised recommendations in
which:
 goal statements were
tenuously linked to key
nutritional issues, and there
may have been overlap of
ideas between goals or
strategies
 listed recommendations that
contained:
 overly theoretical goals and/
or strategies
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TASK SPECIFIC CRITERIA
each goal
 justify key points in
context
High Distinction
 strategies aligned with goals,
were practical and
manageable in number, and
motivational for the client
 outcome measures were
feasible and clearly allocated
to each goal
Distinction
 strategies aligned with goals,
were practical and
manageable in number
 outcome measures were
mainly feasible and clearly
allocated to each goal
 statements were justified by reference to relevant professional
literature, integrated into the plan and adapted to suit the client
Communicate in
professional writing style
 Style
 Format
 English conventions
(spelling, grammar
punctuation and
paragraphing,
referencing)
 Assignment
specifications (page
limit, line spacing, font,
margins)
Your nutrition care plan:
Your nutrition care plan:
 was a professionally written and presented document in terms of style,
format and English conventions because it:
 used key terminology in the correct context and was free of
colloquialisms
 was clear, succinct and persuasive with a logical flow of ideas
 adhered to English
conventions & assignment
specifications
 had correct citations in text
and reference list using
Harvard or APA referencing
style
 adhered to English
conventions & assignment
specifications (OR with minor
errors)
 had correct citations in text and
reference list using Harvard or
APA format (or minor errors)
Credit
 strategies aligned with goals,
were practical but may be too
many OR contain extraneous
detail
 outcome measures were
relevant but too numerous
OR allocated broadly across
goals
 statements (which may have
had extraneous detail) were
justified by reference mainly
to professional literature,
some of which is integrated
into the plan
Pass
 strategies either overlapped
in ideas OR did not align with
goals OR were overly
theoretical
 outcome measures were
either impractical or irrelevant
to the client context or too
numerous
 statements (which may have
had extraneous or insufficient
detail) were justified with
sweeping generalisations
based on lecture notes or
non-professional literature
Fail
 personal comments or
sweeping generalisations
based on non-professional
literature
Your nutrition care plan:
Your nutrition care plan:
Your nutrition care plan:
 was mainly professional in
terms of style, format and
English conventions because
it:
 used key terminology in the
correct context (or mainly)
and was free of
colloquialisms
 was partially professional in
terms of style, format and
English conventions because
it:
 used some key terminology
in context and occasional
colloquialisms
 conveyed some ideas but was
not professionally written
because it:
 was clear with a logical flow
of ideas but may have
contained extraneous detail
 mostly adhered to English
conventions and assignment
specifications
 had a mainly logical flow of
ideas but may be have been
too brief for the context
 mostly adhered to English
conventions and assignment
specifications but may not
have met all assignment
specifications
 had mostly correct citations
in text and reference list
using Harvard or APA
referencing style
 had some correct citation in
text and reference list using a
consistent referencing style
 used everyday rather than
professional language, and
may have relied on
colloquialisms and/ or
extraneous detail
 had loosely linked ideas that
partially conveyed some
meaning
 occasionally adhered to
some English conventions
 partially acknowledged
sources using own style of
referencing
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