Dietician 'In-Patients' Role In Nutrition

In the nutrition discipline, one must be capable of interacting with patients, fellow colleagues and other various bodies involved in the health and human service delivery. A dietician can be present throughout all levels of the healthcare system; at a primary level, for example they receive walk-in patients who are looking to improve their health through dietary means, at a secondary level, where, for example, general practitioners refer a patient with type 2 diabetes in an attempt to reduce the patients dependence on insulin injections, or at a tertiary level, where dieticians work closely with other healthcare discipline to ensure an in-patient is given the best chance of recovery. Due to the many professional relationships with diverse
Examples of practising dietician standards include striving for positive nutritional outcomes for all individuals, respecting all individual’s needs, collaborating with others and doing no harm (International Confederation of Dietetic Associations, 2010a). Dietetic students entering the nutrition profession find the shift from competitive students to professionals collaborating together in the industry a challenging transition (Lordly & MacLellan, 2012). In an environment where the goal of obtaining the best internship played a key role in the student’s dietetic education, the focus moved away from developing a professional identity to becoming the ideal internship applicant. Suggesting an individual’s education history, as well as their personal experiences and the discipline’s codes of conduct, can have either positive or negative influence on the person’s professional identity (MacLellan, Lordly, & Gingras, 2011). As such, a dietician’s professional identity is subsequently influenced by their codes of practice, their education, personal experiences and reasons for entering the