Sharing best practices between dietitians working across Europe (DIETS)

DIETS: the Thematic Network (TN) was a network for Dietitians in Europe. The Thematic Network, funded in 2006 through the Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency of the European Commission, was established to facilitate sharing of best practice between dietitians working across Europe. A TN was always hosted by a University and in this case the University of Plymouth provided the hosting facilities. 

The network had 120 partners in 30 countries. Partners were Higher Education Institutes (80) or Associations of Dietitians (33) or others who share an interest in promoting nutritional health. The main alliance was with the European Federation of the Associations of Dietitians (EFAD www.efad.org). The TN had major objectives to;

• to work with other interested parties throughout Europe and internationally
• to develop the role of the dietitian in the promotion of nutritional health through embedding lifelong learning competencies in first cycle degrees
• describe all areas of dietetic practice, education and training throughout Europe and develop the utilisation of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System)
• to improve communications through the development of a dedicated website and associated databases
• to promote education courses for dietitians

DIETS promoted exchange visits between dietitians and university staff working in different countries within Europe and shared of information about placements for students between partners. Additionally the network held two conferences and distributed newsletters regularly through a ‘key contact’ in each partner organisation.