Career Option as a Dietician

Looking for a Career Option as a Dietician? This section features Dietician as a career option, elaborated with reference to the job profile, personality traits required, the courses and training involved, premier institutions and future prospects.

A combination of clinical and nutritional expertise enables the dietician to assess each patient's dietary needs. To this knowledge base, the successful dietician must add the skill of establishing an individual rapport with each patient to enable appropriate advice to be understood and accepted. Dieticians may be based in clinical or community settings. Their patients and clients come from every age group and from all walks of life. While some dieticians choose to specialize in the treatment of, say children or people with renal disease, others continue to whose need for dietary advice may be vital, important or simply desirable.

Some very sick patients are unable to take food by mouth. Then the dietician's expertise is required to formulate an appropriate liquid feed, conditions, such as and the dietician continues to provide support and advice relevant to the patient's lifestyle. For other patients, pregnant women for example, the dietician may need to offer appropriate advice for a comparatively short time.

In the processed food industry a dietician works on the development and improvement of food products and production methods, such as new ways of preserving foods. In this sphere dieticians work with food chemists and food technologists experimenting in food laboratories on flavor and dietetic problems.

Dietician may be in charge of catering in organizations of different types such as residential schools, offices and so on. They could also be staff, planning well-balanced meals and supervising their production. They may also opt for teaching in different types of educational institutions-colleges, polytechnics, or universities.

Personality Traits: Dietician should have interest in sound diet, an aptitude for science, organizing ability, ability for teamwork, patience, a sense of responsibility, understanding of people of all ages, backgrounds, Good writing skills are also an advantage, as dieticians produce leaflets, articles and teaching packs as well as writing reports and letters, and ability to express oneself lucidly would be important for aspiring dieticians.

A number of universities offer a 3 year B.Sc., / BA in Nutrition / Dietetics. These subjects are also offered as a Post-Graduate specialization both at the degree (Masters in Home Science / Applied Nutrition) as well as post-graduate diploma level.

List of Training Institutions in India:

• All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, 110 Chittaranjan Avenue, Kolkata - 700 073, West Bengal URL: www.wbhuhs.org
  
• University Of Mumbai, MG Road, Fort, Mumbai - 400 032, Maharashtra URL: www.mu.ac.in
  
• Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science & Higher Education For Women, Coimbatore - 641 043, Tamil Nadu
• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amristar - 143 005, Punjab URL: www.gnduonline.org
  
• National Institute of Nutrition, jamia Osmania, Hyderabad - 500 007, Andhra Pradesh URL: www.ninindia.org
  
• Osmania University, Hyderabad (University College for Women, Koti) URL: www.osmania.ac.in
  
• SNDT Women's University, Mumbai - 400 020 URL: www.sndt.edu
  
• University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad 580 005 URL: www.uasd.net
  
• University of Delhi, New Delhi - 110 001 URL: www.du.ac.in
  
• University of Madras, Chennai - 600 005, Tamil Nadu URL: www.mu.ac.in