In order to further Nutrition Care Process (NCP) and International Dietetics and Nutrition Terminology (IDNT) in Japan and assure accurate understanding and practice by registered dietitians, it was decided to incorporate NCP and IDNT at the university level. In a clinical nutrition exercise, students assessed a patient’s clinical history then selected three problems using IDNT as per the Problem, Etiology, Signs and Symptom (PES) statement.
While the students did considerably well in spite of it being their first trial, the results demonstrated that there were both benefit and concern. The benefit was related to making the dietitian’s role and responsibility clear and promoting close cooperation between dietitians and other medical facilities. The concern was related to a degree of difficulty in accurately understanding the PES statement as it applied to NCP and IDNT, as well as greater need for effort and endurance in the training process.
To standardize NCP and IDNT in Japan, as well as abroad, it is suggested there is a need to not only introduce it at the university level, but to maintain a lifelong study for dietitians.

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