The RD(N) negotiates a treatment plan with the patient which may include prescriptions, and follow-up visits often focus on maintenance and monitoring progress.
A growing number of dietitians work in the food industry, journalism, sports nutrition, corporate wellness programs, and other non-traditional dietetics settings.
[citation needed] As explained by the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster's dictionaries, the cause of the confusion is that the spelling with "-tian" is an irregular alteration of the ending "-cian", which is otherwise exclusively used to refer to specialists and practitioners of other professions.
[13] Dietitians supervise the preparation and service of food, develop modified diets, participate in research, and educate individuals and groups on good nutritional habits.
[18][19] The goals of dietitians are to provide medical nutritional intervention, and to obtain, safely prepare, serve and advise on flavorsome, attractive, and nutritious food for patients, groups and communities.
Professional dietitians may also provide specialist services such as in diabetes, obesity, oncology, osteoporosis, pediatrics, renal disease, and micronutrient research.
They confer with other health care professionals to review patients' medical charts and develop individual plans to meet nutritional requirements.
These dietitians apply and distribute knowledge about food and nutrition to individuals and groups of specific categories, life-styles and geographic areas in order to promote health.
Some community dietitians conduct home visits for patients who are too physically ill to attend consultations in health facilities in order to provide care and instruction on grocery shopping and food preparation.
They coordinate, assess and plan foodservice processes in health care facilities, school food-service programs, prisons, restaurants, and company cafeterias.
[26] These dietitians may perform audits of their departments to ensure quality control and food safety standards, and launch new menus and various programs within their institution to meet health and nutritional requirements.
The neonatal dietitian performs clinical assessment of patients, designs nutrition protocols and quality improvement initiatives with the medical team, develops enteral and parenteral regimens, helps establish and promote lactation/breastfeeding guidelines and often oversees the management of infection prevention in the handling, storage, and delivery of nutritional products.
They focus on early nutritional needs, and often work closely with doctors, school health services, clinics, hospitals and government agencies, in developing and implementing treatment plans for children with eating disorders, food allergies, or any condition where a child's diet factors into the equation, such as childhood obesity.
They set department goals, policies and procedures; procurement, equipment and supplies; ensure safety and sanitation standards in foodservice; and administer budget management.
[29] Dietitians' expertise in nutrition is often solicited in the media—for example for expert guest opinions on television and radio news or cooking shows, columns for a newspaper or magazine, or resources for restaurants on recipe development and critique.
They also work as sales representatives for food manufacturing companies that provide nutritional supplements and tube feeding supplies.
[18] Their education in health science involves scientific based knowledge in anatomy, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and physiology.
While the specific academic and professional requirements to becoming a fully qualified dietitian differ across countries and jurisdictions, as these are adapted to the needs of the individual countries and the opportunities available,[25] common academic routes include: In addition, clinical/medical dietitians are required to undergo an internship in a hospital to learn counseling skills with patients and aspects of psychology.
[30] In order for patients to receive a rebate from the national Medicare system or private health insurance, APD status is required.
Requirements to entry into practice as a dietitian include a four-year undergraduate degree from an accredited university (which includes courses in science, foods, nutrition, management, communication and psychology/sociology, among others), a 10–12 month supervised practice period (called an internship), and successfully passing a board exam in nutrition and dietetics.
Requirements for eligibility for registration include a recognised bachelor's degree in dietetics or nutrition from an accredited educational institution.
Besides academic education, dietitians must complete at least 1200 hours of practical, supervised experience through an accredited program before they can sit for the registration examination.
[41] In both programs the student is required to complete several areas of competency including rotations in clinical, community, long-term care nutrition as well as food service, public health and a variety of other worksites.
Once the degree is earned, the internship completed, and registration examination passed, the individual can use the nationally recognized legal title, "registered dietitian", and is able to work in a variety of professional settings.
For instance, the California Business and Professions Code Section 2585-2586.8,[42] states that: Any person representing himself or herself as a registered dietitian shall meet one of the following qualifications:
Dietetic technicians are involved in planning, implementing and monitoring nutritional programs and services in facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools.
In Canada, there are national standards for academic training and qualifications for dietetic technicians, according to CSNM (the Canadian Society for Nutrition Management).
They examine diet orders, prepare meal trays, maintain the storage area for food supplies, and ensure practice of sanitary procedures.
They may operate computers to enter and retrieve data on patients' caloric requirements and intake, or to track financial information.
[51] Dietary managers supervise the production and distribution of meals, as well as the budgeting and purchasing of food and the hiring, training and scheduling of support staff in various types of workplaces offering larger scale foodservices, such as hospitals, nursing homes, school and college cafeterias, restaurants, correction facilities and catering services.