Strategic planning: public health nutritionists strengthen their capacity to function in a changing environment.

In 1987, the public health nutritionists who work in Ontario's 42 health units and the Ministry of Health, initiated a province-wide strategic planning process. That same year, three major reports received by the Ontario Ministry of Health proposed new directions for health services. This article briefly describes the strategic planning process used by the nutritionists and presents the resulting "Strategic Plan for Nutrition in Public Health." It also reviews the three reports and illustrates how they support the priorities established by the nutritionists under four major themes: data needs and data collection; economic/environmental issues; program/service issues; and professional issues. The relevance and significance of the parallels among the reports and strategic plan are explored.