Nutrition

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2010

With the increase in the field of bariatrics, I think the need for nutritionists will increase. As of right now, that might be the area you want to look into working.. your passion will be utilized in this area of practice. :)

hellokittypink · Nov 7, 2010

Yes, you are right there are not alot of nursing positions that deal directly with nutrition. Cardiac rehab, DM educators and nutrition support may be the only positions. I am pretty sure there are very few jobs in these areas. Most hospitals at least in my area of the country are eliminating or severely cutting back staff. The RNs in those positions were had many years of experience.

I am an dietitan and an RN. I switched fields because I was tired of trying to teach pts all day their diets and they couldn't care less. It was frustrating and boring.

tyvin, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2010

Dietitians are in great demand. Every facility that deals with patients has one or more, any place that has a cafeteria has one or more etc... not to mention all the other places they work and plus private practice as well.

Who walks into the patients room when they are admitted and assesses there dietary needs; it's a dietitian. I think if you look into it further you will find that dietitians work in a lot of other places and are in greater demand then you think.

IMO being a dietitian could be advantages. The obesity rate of this country is growing with no outlook of it subsiding. Dietitians will be in great demand to help solve this horrible concern that has become a fast growing problem in the U.S.

Of course as a previous poster pointed out a dietitian has great responsibility and one of the hardest aspect of the job is compliance from clients. You can lead a horse to water...........so it's what you want or are able to do best. Of course teaching is not the only field or treatment; there is research which is an exciting field and others.

Nutrition is part of the nursing process in that we treat the whole person.

You need to ask yourself what you would be good at.

NamasteNurse, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2010

When I went to cardiac rehab they sent me to a nutritionist too. Also, people who have special diets, like wheat free, diabetic etc need counseling. Yes, in nursing school we concentrated quite a bit on nutrition

cmw6v8 · Nov 8, 2010

I am a nursing student and I also work in the nutrition office as a clerk at my local hospital. I'm also very interested in nutrition and am interested in working with diabetes patients possibly as an educator or an NP in the future. While there may not be as many career paths for nursing jobs that focus on nutrition, having nutrition knowledge is very helpful in nursing.

Knowing what diet your patient is on and what that diet entails is huge--we get nurses calling us all the time for information about certain diets and wanting to know what a patient can and cannot eat. I'm thankful to have that knowledge now so when I get out on the floor I will be familiar with that kind of thing.

If you are interested in working with diabetes patients, I feel like that will be an area of great demand whether you're in nursing or dietetics, since recent predictions say that 1 in every 3 Americans will have Type 2 DM, versus the current statistic of 1 in 10. So there's that... :)

citygrl646 · Feb 13, 2011

Do what interests you. i switched fairly recently from being an RN (cause i was very unhappy with it) to pursuing my masters in clinical nutrition and RD. Dietians will be a more in demand career esp. as reimbursements for RD care increase. As an RN i rarely had the time to counsel pts on nutrition and frankly felt that 80% of the complications/diseases I saw were nutrition based (i.e. some cancers, heart disease, diabetes). also RNs do mostly hand on technical things (ie catheter insertion, putting in IVs, dispensing drugs).

the RD education path is more drawn out and nerve wracking mainly because clinicals and coursework are not combined, meaning after acceptance and completion of at least a bachelors in nutr. or specific nutr/science classes, you then have to apply to competitive dietetic internships/and masters programs, although you dont need to complete the masters.

Don't make a career decision based solely on present job demand-many went into law thinking they'd make 100k right out of school and the recession coupled with many going to law school thinking they'd make big $$$ caused the job market for lawyers to dry up and many make 50-70K---about what dietitians in nyc can make. Pick what you enjoy, and it will pay off because if you LOVE ur job, you'll be the best at it and will find ways to increase ur income.

keep in mind that many professional jobs have pretty similar salaries.