NSDA Organizational Model  Description

The dietetic profession is self-regulated.  The profession has a regulatory body (NSDA) which has the authority from provincial legislation to establish standards for training and practice, and to govern the activities of the Association (registration, quality assurance and discipline) for the purpose of public protection. 

The large circle represents the dietetic profession, made up of dietitian-nutritionists.  The solid line on the circle illustrates that only licensed dietitian-nutritionists, whose title is a protected professional designation, make up the profession.

The inner circle represents the dietitian-nutritionists who serve the Association as members of the Board of Directors.  A public member, who is not a dietitian-nutritionist, may also sit on the Board of Directors.  The dotted line on the circle illustrates the interdependence of the board members’ positions.  The solid black lines connecting the president and president elect positions and president and executive manager positions represent direct accountability of these positions to the president.

There is overlap of icons representing board positions (registrar, vice president and member-at-large (quality assurance)) with icons representing committees, as these board positions chair their respective committees (Registration, ad hoc and Quality Assurance) and report committee activities to the Board of Directors.   The committee icons are placed outside the inner circle because committee members are dietitian-nutritionists, but not necessarily board members.

The solid line between the inner circle and icon representing the public represents the direct accountability of the self-regulated (rather than government-regulated) profession to the public through the actions of the regulatory body to ensure safe, ethical and competent practice.

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