Graduate profile of the Nutritionist in Chile: similarities and particularities between the different institutions of Higher Education

Abstract

Introduction: The Graduation Profile is a curricular element that defines the specific and generic competencies, which particularize a professional. It is elaborated based on the areas of performance of the profession, the discipline and the demands of the context. In Chile, 35 institutions offer the Nutrition and Dietetics program and, given their heterogeneity and the lack of a consensus of national minimum standards, the objective of this study was to analyze the graduate profiles declared by the institutions, in order to determine points of consensus and/or particularities that allow evaluating their relevance.

Methodology: Mixed descriptive cross-sectional study. Thirty-five universities corresponding to the universe as of July 2022 were analyzed. The empirical material used was the texts entitled "Graduate profile" published in the official web pages of the institutions. The program Atlas.ti version 22 was used for the descriptive thematic analysis of the texts, following an inductive logic.

Results: Thirty-three profiles were analyzed (2 were not published). The clinical field was the one most present in the profiles (94%), followed by public health (85%) and food service management (82%), with 25 institutions (76%) declaring the three traditional fields of the discipline. Within the area of non-traditional performance, the most present was research (64%), followed by management of technological tools (18%) and sport (15%). Of the 73% reporting the generic scope, ethics is the subcategory most frequently presented (23%), followed by teamwork (19%) and social responsibility (18%).

Conclusions: There is a wide diversity in both the form and substance of the published texts. Although the vast majority state at least the 3 traditional domains, 48% do not state performances for all the identified domains.