Do you love to help people get healthy, learn to eat better, and feel great? Perhaps a career in healthcare is the right field for you! There are many branches in the healthcare field from doctors, who help to cure diseases, to nurses, who help to treat patients more holistically, to certified nurses’ aids, who help to make patients more comfortable and complete personal care activities. There’s a job that not many people consider, though – a dietitian job. If you have ever considered a job helping people figure out how to cook healthy, great tasting meals, a dietitian job may be the job for you!Dietitians are currently employed in many different settings, from hospitals to community centers to research clinics. Where a dietitian may find himself working depends on how he specializes – whether it’s as a clinical dietitian, who works mainly in hospitals, retirement communities, and other large settings, to make a healthy eating plan for all patients and residents; or as a management dietitian, who might work in a hospital, but is just as likely to be found in a cafeteria planning room; or as a community dietitian, working with a set population, such as pregnant women, in a community setting.
In order to become a dietitian, you must first earn a Bachelor’s degree and complete an internship. The costs of this education, though, are definitely offset by the earning potential of a dietitian – usually around $53 thousand per year, or $26.50 per hour. In fact, it is this Bachelor’s degree that separates a Registered Dietitian from a Nutritionist, who is not registered and does not have to have any degree at all. Needless to say, being a registered dietitian adds considerable credibility to the advice you give when counseling someone’s dietary plan. Getting a dietitian job is also easier because you have a degree to back up your claim to expertise.As a registered dietitian, you may find yourself completing a variety of jobs. Not all dietitian jobs directly involve you working with an individual client to suggest individual eating plans, or multitudes of clients in a healthcare facility. Some dietitians, actually, do not ever have client contact, but rather spend their days researching new and better ways to facilitate better health in clients in general. Other dietitian jobs involve giving talks to the general public, in settings such as expos, health fairs, and personal speaking engagements. When a dietitian does have direct client contact, though, the job is usually centered around discussing the client’s current dietary plan, and how that plan can be changed to be more healthy. These dietitians take the time to explain nutrition issues and asses clients individually, helping each client to succeed.
In a dietitian job, you have the ability to touch many lives and help many clients to become healthier through suggesting better eating patterns and meal planning. From talking about nutrition needs to planning an actual menu, to even cooking food for clients, your job as a dietitian will be centered around healthy, great-tasting food.