Public Health Nutrition Workforce Development Missing In European Nutrition Policies : The JobNut Project

Rationale and Objectives: It was assumed that there is a need of a competent workforce for the implementation of policies and action plans. In the JOBNUT project, we aimed at auditing European action plans and policies in the nutrition area in order to assess governmental mandates for public health nutrition workforce development. Materials and Methods: English language versions only of national and international policy documents within public health nutrition were identified in the WHO European nutrition policy database. The documents were reviewed and relevant sections were analyzed against an audit framework. A total of 17 European national action plans were included in the analysis. Results and Findings: Most national action plans gave very limited reference to workforce development as a strategy, if at all. In some cases, focus was on training health care professionals and school staff. It was barely made clear who would take the responsibility for continuing education and teachers, nor how quality assurance of the performance of this workforce would be taking place. The policy documents from the UK, France, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, and Denmark clearly articulated the implementation responsibilities of the health workforce in public health nutrition areas. Only France and the UK had policy statements pointing out the need for additional resource investment in workforce growth and the Dutch implementation of public health nutrition policies. Conclusion: Workforce development is a forgotten strategy in European national action plans relevant to public health nutrition. Societal capacity to implement strategies in policy documents is likely to be limited. Acknowledgement: This project was supported by the European Commission, Directorate General Education and Culture, the Leonardo Programme