According to the new president of the high school Oficial de Dietistas-Nutricionistas de Navarra (CODINNA-NADNEO), Elena Gascón, one of the main demands of this group is to be part of the public health system, both at primary care and hospital level. "Obesity has reached the level of health alarm in Spain and in the Autonomous Community, where according to the 2014-20 Health Plan, 27.7% of children under 14 years of age have obesity," she says.     

In his opinion, against this reality it is more than demonstrated that the first action should be the modification of diet and lifestyle habits. "For this, the ideal would be to act from primary care, in which the actions of different professionals, including dietitians-nutritionists, could be combined".

Likewise, the new president of CODINNA -graduate and team member of development of the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra- warns about the problem of malnutrition in hospitalized patients: "This problem affects 30-50% of hospitalized patients, which increases the length of hospital stay and other complications". In his opinion, "early intervention by dieticians-nutritionists would help to reverse this problem".

In this regard, Elena Gascón recalls that since 2003 dietitians-nutritionists have been included in the Law on the Management of Health Professions. In addition, she warns that membership in Navarra is mandatory to practice: "Although in all professions there is some intrusiveness, we believe that it is especially serious in the field of health, so it is so important to remind the population that the nutrition expert must endorse its knowledge with the degree scroll of diploma holder or graduate in Human Nutrition and Dietetics". 

252 members

At present, the high school Official Dietitians and Nutritionists of Navarra has 252 members. Of these, almost half are registered as non-practicing. "It is important to remind graduates that they can become members even if they do not practice, since the strength of the high school is its members, not the board government," warns Elena Gascón.

In his case, he recognizes that he reached the position presidency "out of commitment to the profession", in this sense, he highlights the role of the entire board government, "where we all work altruistically and with the goal to dignify the degree scroll dietitian-nutritionist as much as possible".

In addition, he adds that his work at the University of Navarra provides him with knowledge in other dimensions, such as management, the results-oriented work or communication, "which can be very practical in a high school of professionals".