Abstract:

Future dietitians are required to face up with social and environmental problems during their profession, which means dealing with issues related to food security, food waste, climate change impact on agriculture, sustainable dietary advice etc. Before thinking on any solution, a holistic analysis of the situation needs to be developed. This is a complex cross-curricular skill that, unfortunately, is still scarcely addressed in most university degrees. This work was developed in the context of the Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics Degree at the University of the Basque Country.

Several active and collaborative activities were carried out in order to develop the holistic approach of sustainability and social responsibility related problems in two subjects of the first year of the Degree (“Food Chemistry and Biochemistry” and “Food Law, Management and Deontology”). Students fulfilled questionnaires before and after each activity in order to measure any possible impact on the holistic view, apart from in foresight and strategic capacity.

Results revealed higher self-reported improvement to perform a holistic approach after the activities. Most of the student considered the activities interesting but also difficult.

The holistic approach of sustainability and social responsibility related problems is a competence that needs to be more developed during the different courses of the university degree to obtain its integration and make future dietitian be able to analyze globally this kind of issues.

Keywords:

Holistic analysis, sustainability, social responsibility, competence.