Dietetics is a field of science that determines how nutrition and good eating affect our overall health. Scientific studies have shown how a change to our diet can help prevent or control a variety of health problems, including obesity, diabetes and heart disease. So, dietetics prepares the students and practitioners to use advanced knowledge about food and nutrition to help prevent and treat disease and maintain and promote health. It is people-oriented and science-focused; evidence-based and the first step toward a professional qualification.

Dieticians are experts in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing a tube feeding regimen. They often work as integral members of multi-disciplinary teams to treat complex clinical conditions such as diabetes, food allergy and intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome, eating disorders, chronic fatigue, kidney failure, malnutrition, and bowel disorders. Many dieticians work in hospitals and usually see specific patients where a nutritional assessment and intervention has been requested by a doctor or nurse, for example if a patient has lost his/her ability to swallow or requires artificial nutrition due to intestinal failure.

So, dieticians are qualified and regulated health professionals who assess, diagnose and treat dietary and nutritional problems at an individual and wider public-health level. They use the most up-to-date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease which they translate into practical guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices. They also advise and influence food and health policy across the spectrum from government, to local communities and individuals.

Assistant Dietician: Career Pathway

• Assistant Dietician
• Dietician
• Clinical Nutrition Manager
• Hospital Director of Food Services

In a school setting, the dietician might travel to a school and provide students with information and training on healthy eating. When they work in an office setting, they see clients who come to them for assistance in meeting their dietary needs or for help with dieting. They also may focus their education on certain health and dietary issues like diabetes, unhealthy weight or hypertension and work specifically with those groups in community or healthcare settings. Dieticians and nutritionists are an important part of our food service management and health care teams and so they can also become self-employed.

Their responsibilities include:

• Undertaking nutritional assessments of patients with a range of complex medical conditions.
• Educating and advising patients with diet-related disorders on the practical ways in which they can improve their health by supporting them to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.
• Creating a care plan with advice on how to follow it.
• Liaisoning with hospital staff and external agencies to ensure the smooth transition of patients discharged from hospital back into the community so that they can continue to receive the dietary support needed.
• Working with general physicians, consultants, and doctors on the best diet plans for a patient’s needs.
• Creating facility-wide nutritional programs for correctional, educational and healthcare institutions.
• Collaborating with food manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of prepared meals.
• Researching the effect of nutrition on health and disease.