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General Description

This is an ideal career for analytical and logical thinkers. Dietitians are qualified to provide expert nutrition and dietary advice to individuals and groups. You know about food and health and help people sort through the maze of nutrition information.

Career Advice - Dietitian Career

You also have clinical training to modify diets to treat medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, gastro-intestinal diseases, food allergies and intolerances, and overweight and obesity.

You work in a wide range of fields: patient care in hospitals and nursing homes; community nutrition and public health; consultancy and private practice; food service and management; the food and medical nutrition industries; public relations, marketing and communications; government; and research and teaching.

What you do every day?

As a dietitian your job is to help people understand the link between food and health, and assist them to make dietary choices to get the most out of their lifestyle.

From day to day this will involve -

• Assessing people's nutritional needs
• Developing personalised eating plans and nutrition guidelines
•  Providing information on:
  • Healthy eating
  • Reading food labels
  • Choosing the best foods when shopping and eating out, and
  • Healthy ways to prepare food
• Sorting out nutrition fact from fiction
• Undertaking nutrition and food research
• Training other health care professionals
• Developing nutrition communications, programs and policies.
• You consult with other health professionals (such as doctors, nurses, social workers and speech pathologists) to ensure clients’ or patients’ needs are fully meet.

Personality that best fits this occupation

If you are interested in food, nutrition and health, enjoy communicating with people, and have an aptitude for science – an exciting future lies ahead of you when you become a Dietitian. You need to have a critical and enquiring mind, good organisational skills and initiative, good written and verbal communication skills, and be able to work effectively with people.

Best thing about this career

When it comes to nutrition, people often say 'you just don't know who to believe these days'! You can help people get off the dieting merry-go-round and make changes they will be able to sustain over a lifetime. The recent television show ‘The Biggest Loser’ has demonstrated this sustainable change. You tailor your advice to individuals to fit their lifestyle, so helping people to make positive lifestyle changes provides a great sense of professional satisfaction.

Worst thing about this career

It is not possible to have a positive effect on every client seen. People who are not ready to make changes, or those who have health issues, may be unable to implement the recommendations you provide. In these circumstances the dietitian’s role is to provide accurate information to the client on how changes in their lifestyle may benefit them, and then allow the client to take on these changes when they feel comfortable doing so.