FACTOID # 125: India’s criminal courts acquitted over a million defendants in 1999, more than the next 48 surveyed countries combined.
 
 Home   Encyclopedia   Statistics   Countries A-Z   Flags   Maps   Education   Forum   FAQ   About 
 
WHAT'S NEW
RELATED ARTICLES
People who viewed "Dietitian" also viewed:
RECENT ARTICLES
More Recent Articles »
 

SEARCH ALL

FACTS & STATISTICS    Advanced view

Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 

 

(* = Graphable)

 

 


Encyclopedia > Dietitian

A dietitian (sometimes spelled dietician) is an expert in food and nutrition. Dietitians help promote good health through proper eating. They also supervise the preparation and service of food, develop modified diets, participate in research, and educate individuals and groups on good nutritional habits. The goals of the dietary department are to obtain, prepare, and serve flavorsome, attractive, and nutritious food to patients, family members, and health care providers. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... The Nutrition Facts table indicates the amounts of nutrients which experts recommend you limit or consume in adequate amounts. ... The foodservice (or food service) industry generally encompasses those places, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal eaten away from home. ... In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. ... This article is about the concept. ...


In the US nutrition professionals include the registered dietitian (RD) and the dietetic technician, registered (DTR). These terms, as well as simply dietitian, are legally protected terms regulated by the American Dietetic Association (ADA). Some RDs or DTRs call themselves nutritionists. However, the term nutritionist is not regulated, as dietitian is. People may call themselves nutritionists without the educational and professional requirements of registered dietitians. Dietetic technicians are not the same as dietitians in terms of responsibilities and qualifications. Different professional terms are used in other countries. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...


In the U.S., dietitians are registered with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (the certifying agency of the ADA) and are only able to use the label "Registered Dietitian" when they have met strict, specific educational and professional prerequisites and passed a national registration examination.

Contents

Types of dietitians

The majority of dietitians are clinical, or therapeutic, dietitians. Clinical dietitians review medical charts and talk with patients' families. They work with other health care professionals and community groups to provide nourishment, nutritional programs and instructional presentations to benefit people of all ages, and with a variety of health conditions. This is accomplished by developing individual plans to meet nutritional needs. These plans include nourishment, tube feedings (called enteral nutrition), intravenous feedings (called parenteral nutrition) such as total parenteral nutrition (TPN) or peripheral parenteral nutrition (PPN), diets, and education. Clinical dietitians provide individual and group educational programs for patients and family members about their nutrition and health. See drugs, medication, and pharmacology for substances that treat patients. ... For the chemical substances known as medicines, see medication. ... Nutrition is interpreted as the study of the organic process by which an organism assimilates and uses food and liquids for normal functioning, growth and maintenance and to maintain the balance between health and disease. ... Nasogastric intubation is a medical process involving the insertion of a plastic tube (nasogastric tube, NG tube) through the nose, past the throat, and down into the stomach. ... Total parenteral nutrition (TPN), is the practice of feeding a person intravenously, circumventing the gut. ...


Clinical dietitians

Clinical dietitians work in hospitals and other health care facilities to provide medical nutrition therapy to patients according to the disease processes, provide individual dietary consultations to patients and their family members and also conduct group educations for other health workers, patients and the public. They coordinate both medical records and nutritional needs to asess the patients and make a plan based on their findings. Some clinical dietitians have dual responsibilities with medical nutrition therapy and in foodservice, described below. In addition, clinical dietitians in smaller facilities will also provide or create outpatient education programs. They work as a team with the physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, speech therapists, social workers and nurses to provide care to the patients. See drugs, medication, and pharmacology for substances that treat patients. ... The word physician should not be confused with physicist, which means a scientist in the area of physics. ... Physical therapy can help restore lost functionality in many people. ... // What is Occupational Therapy? Occupational therapy is skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. ... Pharmacists are health professionals who practice pharmacy. ... Speech therapy is the corrective or rehabilitative treatment of physical and/or cognitive deficits/disorders resulting in difficulty with verbal communication. ... A social worker is a person employed in the administration of charity, social service, welfare, and poverty agencies, advocacy, or religious outreach programs. ... Nurses is a television sitcom that ran on NBC from 1991 to 1994. ... A patient is the name given to any person who is ill or injured and is being treated by, or in need of treatment by, a physician or other medical professional. ...


Community dietitians

Community dietitians work with wellness programs and international health organizations. These dietitians apply and distribute knowledge about food and nutrition to specific life-styles and geographic areas. They coordinate nutritional programs in public health agencies, daycare centers, health clubs, and recreational camps and resorts. Some community dietitians carry out clinical based patient care in the form of home visits for patients who are too physically ill to attend consultation in health facilities. A community is a social group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. ... Day care is the care of a child during the day by a person other than the childs parents or legal guardians, often someone outside the childs immediate family. ... Car camping is camping in a tent, but nearby the car for easier access and for supply storage. ...


Foodservice dietitians

Foodservice dietitians or managers are responsible for large-scale food planning and service. They coordinate, assess and plan foodservice processes in health care facilities, school food service programs, prisons, cafeterias and restaurants. These dietitians will also perform audits of their departments, train other food service workers and use marketing skills to launch new menus and various programs within their institution. They direct and manage the operational and nutrition services staffs such as kitchen staffs, delivery staffs and dietary assistants or diet aides. The foodservice (or food service) industry generally encompasses those places, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal eaten away from home. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... Students in Rome, Italy. ... One of a number of cafeterias at Electronic City campus, Infosys Technologies Ltd. ... For other uses, see Restaurant (disambiguation). ...


Gerontological dietitians

Gerontological dietitians are specialist in nutrition and aging. They are Board certified in Gerontological Nutrition with the American Dietetic Association. They work in government agencies in aging policy, and in a regulatory capacity in the oversight of nursing homes and community-based care facilities. They work as Consultants in Nursing Homes, and in higher education in the field of Gerontology (the study of Aging.)


Research dietitians

Research dietitians are mostly involved with dietary related research in the clinical aspect of nutrition in disease states, public aspect on primary, secondary and sometimes tertiary health prevention and foodservice aspect in issues involving the food prepared for patients. Many registered dietitians also work with the biochemical aspects of nutrient interaction within the body. Research Dietitians normally work in a hospital or university research facilities. It should be noted that some Clinical dietitian's roles also involve research other than the normal clinical workload. Quality improvement in dietetics services is also one area of research. This article is about the concept. ... In medicine, prevention is any activity which reduces the burden of mortality or morbidity from disease. ... A precise definition of workload is an elusive term, but a commonly accepted definition is the hypothetical relationship between a human operator and task demands. ...


Administrative dietitians

Administrative, or manager or Director of Dietetics Department or Nutrition Services are sometimes also known as Manager instead of Director depending on the size, number of dietitians in the department and also the organizational structure adopted by the Health facilities or Hospital. Director or Manager acts as head of the dietitians. They also hire, train, direct and supervise employees and manage dietary departments. Administrative dietitians may also apply procedure and policy as part of their management job. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Look up Administration (business) in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... he is the best in the world, some call him the junior jose, special 1 version 2 ... Managing director is the term used for the chief executive of many limited companies in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth and some other English speaking countries. ... // Pre-bureaucratic (entrepreneurial) structures lack standardization of tasks. ... For the town in the Republic of Ireland, see Hospital, County Limerick. ...

Business dietitians

Business dietitians serve as resource people for the media. Dietitians' expertise in nutrition is often taped for TV, radio, and newspapers -- either as an expert guest opinion, regular columnist or guest, or for resource, restaurant, or recipe development and critique. Dietitians have served as show hosts on major television stations and as drive-time radio news anchors. Dietitians write books, appear on television cooking channels, and author corporate newsletters on nutrition and wellness. They also work as sales representatives for food manufacturing companies that provide nutritional supplements and tube feeding supplies. In economics, a business is a legally-recognized organizational entity existing within an economically free country designed to sell goods and/or services to consumers, usually in an effort to generate profit. ... A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. ... In the United States, a dietary supplement is defined under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 as a product taken by the mouth that contains a dietary ingredient that is intended as a supplement to the diet. ...


Consultant dietitians

Consultant dietitians work under private practice. They contract independently to provide nutrition services and educational programs to individuals, nursing homes, and in health care facilities. As recent studies have shown the importance of diet in both preventing and managing disease, many US states have moved towards covering medical nutrition therapy under the Medicaid/Medicare making consulting a much more lucrative option for dietitians due to insurance reimbursement. A consultant (from the Latin consultare meaning to discuss from which we also derive words such as consul and counsel) is a professional who provides expert advice in a particular area of expertise such as accountancy, the environment, technology, the law, human resources, marketing, medicine, finance, public affairs, communication, engineering... A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ... Rest home for seniors in Český Těšín, Czech Republic SNF redirects here. ...


Other nutrition workers

These designations apply principally to the US although the generic classifications are likely to be applicable elsewhere.


Dietetic Technicians

Dietetic Technicians or diet tech are a registered and licensed support professional responsible for assisting and carry out medical nutrition therapy under the direct supervision of a registered dietitian. Most are employed with hospitals or long term care facilities.


Dietary assistants

Dietary assistants or dietary aides are responsible for assisting and carrying out the medical nutrition therapy prescribed by the Dietitians and to ensure that food for the patients as instructed by the Dietitians are carried out correctly by checking menus against recent diet orders before tray assembly begins and being physically present in the kitchen plating-lines at meal hours. Dietary aides in some countries might also carry out a simple initial health screening for newly admitted patients and only inform the Dietitians if any screened patients requires a dietitian's expertise for further assessments or interventions. Expertise is the property of a person (that is, expert) or of a system which delivers a desired result such as pertinent information or skill. ... See: Intervention (counseling) - an orchestrated attempt by family and friends to get a family member to get help for addiction or other similar problem. ...


Dietary clerks

Dietary clerks perform clerical tasks such as entry and maintenance of dietary requirements to a database. They also track financial information, such as the number of meals served each day. Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ... This article is about computing. ...


Dietary managers

Dietary managers are responsible for retail, catering and tray lines. If an operation is large, there may be one or more managers to help in directing the dietary workers. Drawing of a self-service store. ... A professionally catered event Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site. ...


Dietary workers

Dietary workers prepare the food and meal trays in the kitchen. They check for accuracy and completeness. They also maintain the storage area for food supplies and ensure practice of sanitary procedures. Dietary workers are trained on the job and can work in any commercial kitchen.


Dietary hosts

Dietary hosts or hostesses deliver and bring back the meal trays to patients. They distribute and collect menus and help the patients to make complete selections.


USA

A dietitian's education in health science involves significant scientific based knowledge in anatomy, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, physiology, nutrition, medical science. It is these strong foundations in advanced scientific knowledge and an internship that equipped with counseling skills and aspects of psychology enable a Registered Dietitian to assess, analyze, intervene, and educate a patient in relation to the diet and disease. Health Sciences are the group of disciplines of applied science dealing with human and animal health. ... Human heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... For other uses, see Chemistry (disambiguation). ... Biochemistry (from Greek: , bios, life and Egyptian kēme, earth[1]) is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. ... For the song by Girls Aloud see Biology (song) Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, life; and λόγος, logos, speech lit. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Psychological science redirects here. ...


There are a few different academic routes to becoming a fully qualified registrable dietitian:

  • A professional bachelor degree in Dietetics which requires four years of studies

or A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course that generally lasts three or four years. ...

or Quaternary education or postgraduate education is the fourth-stage educational level which follows the completion of an undergraduate degree at a college or university. ... Diploma from Mexico City College, 1948 (in Latin) A diploma (from Greek δίπλωµα diploma) is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study, or confers an academic degree. ...

Besides academic education, registered dietitians must complete up to a year long dietetic internship of at least 900 hours through and accredited program before they can sit for the registration examination. The dietetic internship requires the intern 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. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For information about a medical intern, see the article on Medical residency. ...


Once the degree is earned, the internship completed, and registration examination passed, the individual can now use the nationally recognized legal term, Registered Dietitian and is able to work in a variety of professional settings. Most states require additional licensure to work in most settings. To maintain, the RD credential, professionals must participate in and earn continuing education units 75 hours every 5 years. How to obtain a amature radio licence differs from country to country. ...


Professional associations

USA & Canada

In the United States and Canada, the Dietitian, Registered Dietitian (RD), etc. are similarly protected titles. The professional association in Canada is the Dietitians of Canada. The US equivalent of it is The American Dietetic Association.


Australia

In Australia, the qualified dietitian is called Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD)


External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Choosing and Using a Dietitian -- The Vegetarian Resource Group (2060 words)
Dietitians need to take a variety of physiology, chemistry, and biochemistry courses, all of which are necessary to fully understand the science of nutrition and to separate erroneous nutrition information from facts.
While every dietitian isn't necessarily a gourmet chef, it is important to know your way around a kitchen and a grocery store when giving clients practical information about how to change their diet.
Your dietitian needs to be shock-proof and completely non-judgmental, but at the same time she needs to help you identify problem areas in your diet.
Dietitians and nutritionists (1421 words)
Some dietitians and nutritionists were employed in special food services, an industry made up of firms providing food services on contract to facilities such as colleges and universities, airlines, correctional facilities, and company cafeterias.
Employment of dietitians is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2014 as a result of increasing emphasis on disease prevention through improved dietary habits.
The number of dietitian positions in nursing care facilities and in State government hospitals is expected to decline, as these establishments continue to contract with outside agencies for food services.
  More results at FactBites »


 

COMMENTARY     


Share your thoughts, questions and commentary here
Your name
Your comments
Please enter the 5-letter protection code

Want to know more?
Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 


Lesson Plans | Student Area | Student FAQ | Reviews | Press Releases |  Feeds | Contact
The Wikipedia article included on this page is licensed under the GFDL.
Images may be subject to relevant owners' copyright.
All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003-5. All Rights Reserved.
Usage implies agreement with terms.