This was a discussion post for a course I teach. Students were to think of barriers to eating healthy in their future career field and then collaborate with classmates with similar career paths or majors. As dietitians what would you say is ours?
I would say the constant pressure to be eating healthy and the prevalence of eating disorders among RDs.
I’m currently in acute care which pays relatively well (for being an RD) but I’m becoming more attracted to private practice. I am just not super business oriented and more so want to do it for flexibility and more control over my work. I’d like to work with primarily Medicare/medicaid clients in the lower income parts of my city so I know that won’t be making me millions but I’m wondering if it could be enough to at least keep me going? I appreciate any tips or info!
Has anyone intentionally gone from a fully remote non-salaried role to a salaried, 100% in person or hybrid role? If so, how was the transition? Any regrets?
I miss the guaranteed income. I’m concerned about going back to a 1 hour plus each way commute. I live pretty far from where most jobs are located but don’t want to leave the town I love.
What do you use to find a job? I often use Linkedin or Indeed; however, I have found Indeed has been doing a poor job of showing jobs or relevant jobs. Or sometimes it will show me a job, then I can never find it again (but it wasn't taken down/closed).
I have also googled dietitian jobs near me and see some that are interesting, but then they are on websites that I am not so sure are legit? Or there's no way that job is open given if I go to the direct employer, it's not on their website. Needless to say, ugh. please help lol.
I am four weeks into my MSDI clinical rotation. I graduate in December and I have completed my food service and community rotations. Medical Nutrition has been my favorite course to take. Acute care is full of people who are very malnourished, very sick and in the process of dying. I am not squeamish but I am a very empathetic person.
Does it get any easier? I’m a tough person in many ways but I’m struggling with the constant death and suffering. I love nutrition and I love working with people. I desperately want this job to be something I enjoy.
I started as a RD 10 years ago and today I put my salary at that time into an inflation calculator and it was almost exactly how much I’m making now. I’m basically making the same amount of money I was a decade ago and this really caught me off guard for some reason today and I’m working at one of the hospital networks in my city with “good” pay. Meanwhile the CEO of said hospital network has an 8 figure salary 🥲
To preface, I can be a pretty anxious person (I have generalized anxiety disorder and have done some bouts of therapy), and I am about to enter my third year as a clinical RD. I sometimes experience anxiety from my job, and once in a while will ruminate on things that are either going on currently or that happened in the past, even when I am not on work. These thoughts sometimes take over and I start googling all these questions to either validate what I did or figure out where I could have went wrong. I will somehow find ways to blame myself for a patient’s course of care, specifically if they are on a tube feeding.
When I am seeing patients on tube feedings in the ICU or those on MedSurg that are at high risk, I will get very anxious if labs or vital signs change like pH, CO2, oxygen requirements, etc., or if the patient has a GI issue. I know that in most cases there are often many things going on at once with these patients, and the odds of it being from the tube feedings are low, especially if they are getting a really low rate like 10-20 mL/hr. I know that logically there are many things that can influence a patients’ labs and vital signs such as medications, vent status, etc., But I find myself tending to overthink and attribute almost any change I see to the feeds, even if it is totally irrational, since nutrition is the lens that I look through. Whereas from a doctor’s point of view, nutrition is only one piece of the puzzle. I think I might still have some imposter syndrome/lack of confidence, considering I am still a newer RD.
I also want to point out that it is not often that I am questioned on my recommendations, and I have finally been working at my facility long enough to have built a solid rapport and be respected by many of my colleagues. We also have a lot of checks and balances at my facility, and almost everything we do is signed off by a doctor. Therefore, I know most of my worrying is nonsensical, but my mind tends to gravitate toward this questioning and self-doubt every once in a while. Edit: There was one instance earlier in my career where a physician blamed the tube feedings for an adverse event, and I think that really got in my head and is hard to let go of.
Can anyone else relate to this experience? What do you do to cope with this? Also, how can you differentiate when something like a lab change or change in vital signs is due to nutrition interventions or not?
I have a resident who was just admitted to facility with a continuous tube feed one week ago. I have started to transition her to a nocturnal feed because she is very confused and has already tried to take out her PEG once. Medical provider, NP, asked me about doing bolus feeds instead but DON/ADON said she hasn't been on feed long enough to proceed with bolus feeds. I didn't think this was a variable. How would you transition to a bolus feed with this resident? Thanks so much!
My understanding is that vitamin supplements, especially antioxidants like vitamin c should be avoided in cancer patients unless they have a known or suspected deficiency because the antioxidant activity could protect the cancer cells from chemo and RT. Does anyone know if this also applies to aromatherapy inhibitors like Anastrozole?
I am going back to school later in life and am so excited about dietetics. I am in my MS/DI program as we speak and about one year from being done with everything. I am feeling a little discouraged though as I read so many comments of people who are so unhappy being an RD...would love to hear any feedback from people who actually enjoy their career, what they do, and if comfortable, location and salary! I am in SoCal and feel like pay seems decent on LinkedIn job listings. Anyway, thanks and hope everyone is doing well!
Hi all! Anyone work in or have worked in one of the hospitals in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area? I'm moving to NC in a couple months and I'm trying to decide between UNC Hospital and Duke Hospital. Any thoughts? Help me choose?
Any US based RDs that moved to UAE or Dubai that can share their experiences of transferring their license over for work?
the info I could find include attesting highest degree (MS), but how to verify internship experience? I’ve also heard needing to provide letters of employment for every job in the last 5 years?!
would love to hear from anyone with some experience in this!
thank you
Hi all! I need some insight/tips on a case I am struggling with at the moment.
Patient is a female in long term care and started a few months ago on hemodialysis 3x/week. She is cognitively intact, full code, and under 65 y/o. She previously had an order for “no weights” due to fear of being weighed/knowing her weight. She reports a history of eating disorder (not many details available as she has not received treatment for it while at the facility, though it sounds like anorexia/restriction from what she tells me). Current weight is clinically appropriate but she feels it is too high/desires loss.
So far I am in communication with the MD and dialysis dietitian and have a psych referral pending. Her diet is already liberalized and she does take nepro with no objection at the moment. I am struggling with the balance between the need for post-dialysis weight trending vs limiting her mental distress surrounding the scale and being weighed (asked MD if we could reduce weight frequency…). It is difficult to have a detailed discussion about her health and dialysis progress while avoiding triggering numerical data points/trends. Care plan reflects her feelings around being weighed and staff knows she does not want to know weight values.
I have been in LTC for <3 years so have limited exposure to eating disorders in this population to start with, but throw dialysis in the mix and I am even more out of my wheel house. What am I missing?? Any other referrals/interventions that have worked in your experience?
TY in advance for letting me pick your brains!
Currently trying to gauge when it is appropriate for an organization to hire new employees. My company has a teaching kitchen where community nutrition classes are taught. Currently running all the day to day operations of the classes and acting as a nutritionist for community members for the center. Classes are held 1x/week but the idea is that next year 2 fimes per week.
Right now, there is only 1 employee handling all the day to day with no plans to hire anyone for the next 2 years.
Does anyone do something similar? if so, how many people are on your staff and how often are classes offered.