Job Description and Career Prospects of Dietitian and Nutritionist

Planning out the food and nutrition programs for dieters and supervising the process of preparation and serving of the diets, the dietician and nutritionist help keep the person concerned in shape promoting healthy eating habits. Such nutritionist and dietician will also suggest required diet modifications for the dieter.

Dietician Job Features

Major aspects of the job of dieticians are –

They run the food service systems for the institutions including the schools, colleges, and hospitals.
Promote sound eating habits and educate the dieters accordingly.
Major areas of practicing the dietician and nutritionist jobs include clinical, managements, community, and consultant dietetics.
Employment Prospects

As per the Bureau of labor statistics report of 2008, dieticians and nutritionists occupied about 60,000 jobs and more than half of them worked in hospitals, offices of the physicians, clinics, nursing homes, and such other organizations.

Educational and Training Requirements

Educational and training requirements for the job of dieticians and nutritionists are –

Minimum bachelor’s degree in one of the subjects from dietetics, nutrition, food, and other subjects related to dieting and nutrition.
Courses in food, nutrition, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, microbiology, physiology, and institution management etc.
Everyone wishing to pursue the career of nutritionist and dietician requires license in 35 of the 46 states where law governing the field of dietetics have been put in place.
Institutions from where the job aspirant obtains the degree should have been accredited by American Dietetic Association or ADA.
ADA also awards the dietician credentials for passing the certifications.
Opportunities for Advancements

Experienced dieticians and nutritionists can have the job of assistant, associate, or even the director of the dietetic departments. However, many prefer to be self-employed. Others become sales representatives for equipments, pharmaceutical or food manufacturing.

Fast Rising Scopes

It is expected that employment prospects for the dieticians would grow as fast as any other growing career up to 2018. With people all over the world becoming conscious about physical well being and therefore nutrition; the job prospects have been growing pretty fast.

Slowly and steadily, the earning prospects for the dietician and nutritionists are increasing day by day. In 2009 the median salary of the average nutritionist and dietician was $52,150 and has grown over $60,000 by 2011.