Nutrition & Dietetics: Careers as a Registered Dietitian
Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist
Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN) work in a wide variety of professional fields, including health care, business and industry, public health, education, research, and private practice.
Many RDNs work in organizations, particularly those in medical and health care settings, that require that an individual be credentialed as an RDN.
Work Settings
- Community and public health teaching, monitoring, and advising the public, and helping to improve their quality of life through healthy eating habits as well as planning public health programs.
- Hospitals, HMOs, and other health care facilities educating and counseling patients about nutrition and administering medical nutrition therapy as part of the health care team. They may also manage the food service operations in these settings, as well as in schools, day-care centers, and correctional facilities, and oversee a number of areas from food purchasing and preparation to managing staff.
- Sports nutrition and corporate wellness programs educating and counseling clients about the connection between food, fitness, and health.
- Food and nutrition-related businesses communications, consumer affairs, public relations, marketing, pharmaceutical companies, or product development.
- Private practice and consulting working under contract with physician's offices, health care food service companies, or in private practice. RDs may provide services to food service or restaurant managers, food vendors, distributors, athletes, nursing home residents, or company employees.
- Universities and medical centers teaching physicians, nurses, and dietetics students, and others the sophisticated science of nutrition and foods.
- Research at food and pharmaceutical companies, universities, and hospitals; directing or conducting experiments to answer critical nutrition questions and find alternative foods or nutrition recommendations for the public.
