How important is it for nurses to have knowledge of Nutrition?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello Nurses!

I recently graduated with a degree in nutrition, with an option in dietetics. I have always loved studying nutrition, but during my Senior year of school i realized dietetics was not the field for me. I have chosen to become a nurse and will be starting an accelerated program in June. :)

I would like to ask the nurses on this forum how much they use their knowledge of nutrition; do you feel that it is a necessary subject to have mastered? or do you think nurses should know more? I'm curious to know if my degree is wasted, or if it will be an advantage for me to have.

Thanks for all your input!

Thanks everyone! Your insight is very encouraging.

Special thanks to 07302003. I aspire to become a CRNA and will need experience in the ICU, so thanks for the new focus in my study areas.

Isabelle49: I'll look into WOCN. I've never heard of this specialty!

msjellybean: do you have any good nutrition mag or website recommendations? Are there any specific to the field of nursing? I subscribe to Today's Dietitian and stop by the ADA website from time to time, but would love to expand my resources.

One last thing, I'm pretty ignorant of who is in charge of counseling what. So when is it the dietitians job to counsel the patient on nutrition issues vs a doctor vs a nurse?

Specializes in Family Medicine.
OP, I could have written your post. I did the exact same thing and my timing in realizing dietetics wasn't right for me was almost exactly the same.

Me too! :)

I opted out of the Dietetics Internship and signed up for nursing school instead. High fives!

I definitely don't think the degree was wasted but I honestly didn't use it that much throughout nursing school in terms of counseling patients on nutrition because my advisor in undergrad drilled it into our heads that the only person that should be doing this is the nutrition expert, aka the RD (little self promo if you ask me but I still agree). It was helpful on tests and on the NCLEX but you'll find the nutrition questions to be pretty basic. Since you've probably study some disease processes in your undergrad, the info in your pathophysiology classes will come easily to you.

I'm a new grad nurse and have only had two days on the floor thus far so I have yet to see how my nutrition background will shine through.

Overall, I don't feel the degree is wasted because I use a lot of the information I learned to live a nutritious life. However, such a big focus of the undergrad was biochemistry and organic chemistry (I don't think people realize it's a premed curriculum) so I probably could have learned what I know about meal planning from Jenny Craig.

OMG, you know what I do use all the time from the degree? All the food safety stuff. For example, a PCT was going to heat up a patients meal that had been sitting out for a really long time. It had been in the TDZ (temperature danger zone) for way too long and I got the patient a new try instead. I'm always cracking down of potential foodborne illnesses.

Anyway, good luck to you. Keep us posted on your accelerated program. You'll do great because if you're anything like all the dietetic students/RDs I know, you're super type A and will get down to business. :)

I know basic nutrition concepts and most of the time that was all I need during health teachings but one thing for sure u have a great edge to those normal nurses coz I know studying nutrition is really a tough one.

Specializes in LTC, Med-Surg, IMCU/Tele, HH/CM.

I think a knowledge of nutrition can be very important depending on what area of nursing you go into. For instance I am currently working with a lot of cardiac patients who have no idea what type of diet they can eat at home until someone sits down and talks to them! Our hospital has a dietitian but it's left up to the nurses to educate patients on the appropriate diet for their health.

Even if you end up working in an area that won't require a knowledge of nutrition, remember that knowledge is always a great thing to have! :)

Specializes in med-surg, urgent care, emergency med.

No need to be an expert on nutrition, however, every nurse should have some idea/knowledge about it as proper nutrition keeps people healthy and it will prevent sick people from becoming even worse off from improper diet or malnutrition.

+ Add a Comment