Evidence based practice is the foundation of the dietetics profession. ACEND curricular competencies require exposing students to the research process. This project was developed with dual purposes of enhancing the research skills of undergraduate students and collecting information on breastfeeding attitudes of college-aged individuals.

Students enrolled in a Lifecycle Nutrition course designed and conducted a focus group session on breastfeeding and then analyzed data collected. The most interesting findings were coalesced around five major themes including the negative stigma surrounding breastfeeding, motivators for breastfeeding, sexualization of female breasts, understanding the health benefits of breastfeeding, and partner support.

Students utilized the research process to build critical thinking skills and learned how research informs evidence-based practice.  From the instructor perspective, the research process proved to be a valuable tool to mentor students around problem solving. The research process provides instructors with a mechanism to encourage students to develop independence in finding the answers to nutrition questions. The process of developing a question and designing a study to help answer that question can be applied to any area of the dietetics profession.