Hi everyone,

My sister, who is from India, is currently pursuing her MS in Nutrition & Dietetics at the University of Michigan. She was recently informed that her degree won’t be considered under the STEM category, which means she’ll only get one additional year of OPT instead of the extended period that STEM graduates receive.

She had planned to gain a few years of work experience in the U.S. before returning to India, but now, after investing so much in her education, her time in the U.S. is more limited. To stay longer, she needs to secure a job in the public sector (for visa extensions) or find an employer in the private sector willing to sponsor an H-1B visa.

If anyone knows of public sector opportunities or private employers in the dietetics/nutrition field who are open to visa sponsorship, your help would be greatly appreciated! Referrals or job leads would mean a lot.

Thanks in advance!

I am looking for a good documentary or movie centred around the topic of food literacy, food systems or food security. The goal is to increase food literacy and knowledge about food security.

Hello,

I am thinking of getting my masters in nutrition amd dietetics however, I would prefer not to work as a clinical dietitian.

I used to be a diet tech and worked along side dietitians. I dont like being in a hospital setting. Its just abit depressing and intense

I want to integrate dietetics and personal training. What other options are there for dietetics that are not in a hospital or long term care that will pay well?

Okay so this post is really just me seeking some feedback maybe some advice on what to expect with this mistake…..

okay, first off we are a 280 bed facility, and only 2 RDs for the building. We have asked our administration for more helps because there is just so much going on and they have laughed in our faces.. so with that being said:

I got a new resident 1/8/25 and my designated weight CNA got a weight for 137lbs. He is a new admission so he automatically gets put on weekly weight monitoring for 4 weeks. I even met with the wife because she was concerned about his meal intake, so I ordered an ensure QD because he was eating 100% the whole time. So I was leaving for vacation 1/17/25, and I’m required to get all my sig. weight change notes done by the 15th, so in the mean time to help out, the weight CNA entered my weekly weights. I must have missed the significant weight trigger, idk so much was going on I was very stressed out with my upcoming trip due to personal reasons. I got all my other significant weight change notes in and caught up on past due evaluations that our DON will scold us in morning report for if not done. I leave for vacation 1/17 (which ended up not being a vacation cause I got sick with strep). I come back 1/24. No voice, I feel like shit, we had 24 admissions in the time I was gone, so I know my colleague was extremely busy as well and also continuing to be scolded by the DON for a couple over due evaluations. So today the resident expired. I look at the weights, and I see he has been losing weight since admission, and looking at the notes (which the nurses suck at documenting) all I could see was he was experiencing SOB for a couple days and that he refused his meds last night. This morning he is dead….. I’m just so concerned that I really messed up here and idk what to do.

I work for a company similar to nourish, currently hold 4 licenses - 2 I got are considered “hot spots” while the other 2 are not (I have these 2 bc I recently moved states). Have you guys gotten more? How many more and do you feel it helps keep your books full? Or do you think it’s me as an RD? I don’t think my counseling skills are that bad and most of client are very sweet and we vibe well, occasionally I’ll get a challenging client but they do rebook with me

The latest license I got was $350 and I pondered it so hard bc every week I’ll book 25-30 clients and they fall off, at least 5-10. I got in December and so far have booked 0 clients from this state. I asked my boss and she said it takes time but I kind of think that’s BS bc I told her my concern before I got it and she said the clients are really motivated from this state and it should help a lot. The other license they recommended, I was being matched immediately with clients from this state so was hoping the same for the new license.

My company does reimburse for licenses but there’s a cap on it. I don’t know if I should spend the time and money to try other licenses? Been here almost 8 months so far

will obviously plan on a masters at a state college or better if possible i wanna do nutrition and food science and or food tech along if possible. i can always get culinary experience and better at that on the job but i want a useful degree in case i change my mind about the chef route. is it smart to do community college while working at a restaurant? and something like nutrition at that...

theres also a side of me that thinks its too late to apply and im tired of looking for good colleges in a good state with reasonable fee. i want to be comfortable and succesful i dont want to be a financial burden on my parents and i could always get a masters from a good college being that i choose the nutrition route (pls ignore spelling errors im tired). i think ill be missing out either way but im so confused i dont even know if there is a good college for nutrition. i was looking at arizona states nutrition program ive heard the local one is bad cause the area is? idk please give any input possible

I am in a bind you guys - someone please please give advice.

Almost 5 years in acute care, I like my units and coworkers but I feel like I'm just getting burnt out. I make right at 65k (which had finally started to feel like good money after 5 years of feeling like a door mat). However, a job opened up at a LTC and they offered me 73k.

I have full confidence I can figure out MDS section K, handle the kitchen nuances, and help pass state surveys. I do not have full confidence that I will enjoy this job and that TERRIFIESSSSSS ME. I am a ball of anxiety now that they offered the job.

They're also desperate so they were almost begging me to take the job (their RD got let go, not a good fit and now their running on contracts)

Please someone give some advice or your experience in a LTC. I never got experience in it during my internship and this 5 year job was my first.

😭😭😭

I’m dying to know! My current outpatient job pays only 67k, and I’m feeling my pockets hurt due to living in downtown Toronto.

Hi all!

I work in Bariatric clinic and we recommend high protein meal replacements post-op while on full liquid diet.

I am needing some help on how to substantiate the benefits of protein shakes like Premier over Herbalife.

I have looked into guidance on the safety of supplements. It’s my understanding that if protein powders have a nutrition facts label over a supplemental facts label, they are considered a conventional food and then more regulated by the FDA. But if it has a supplemental facts label, it’s good to look into certified GMP and third party testing.

However when comparing both Premier and Herbalife (at least some products like their protein drink mix) have nutrition facts labels.

I would love some thoughts on what I’m missing!

And from what university? Why did u choose to pursue an mph? What do you do with your degree now, or what do you plan to do with it?Do you feel the ROI is good? Do you have any regrets about it? Basically tell me everything lol. Thanks in advance!

Looking to connect with any RD’s in the tech industry to learn more about opportunities. Anyone have any insight or know anyone who would be willing to connect?

I recently found out another outpatient dietitian for the hospital I work for was bringing in nearly $18,000 a month last year due to her reconciliations. Obviously months vary. Hypothetically, if 18k was the average, she was bringing in over $200,000/year with our services. we are contracted through 2 different employers. I know for a fact my self pay rate is higher and I see more patients than she did. Both of us got paid 55k. I am incredibly unhappy with my salary and feel I do not get paid adequately for the work I do. I just fought to get a 5k pay bump to 60k. I’m still unhappy with this salary and often see salaries higher than what I am getting paid. What do I do? What are your opinions? Am I overlooking something?

Hi everyone! I have upcoming interviews with UCSF and VA Sierra, and I'm feeling really nervous. They're my dream programs. Has anyone interviewed with them before? Were there any questions that caught you off guard or that you wish you had answered differently? I'd really appreciate any tips or advice you can share!

I recently saw that NutraCo was hiring for fully remote RDNs for LTC work, I have seen some information on working for them in a hybrid setting but not fully remote.

Does anyone have any insight regarding salary, the day to day work, medical benefit costs, PTO, providing work from home supplies, etc?

I am really concerned about burning out and it’s important for me to have a good work life balance

I officially start my rotations in the summer (I’ll have a couple hundred hours from my GA position and a few other opportunities from the first two semesters, but will still need to do the majority). I want to get prepared as much as I can now. What items would you recommend buying, either as a “100% you need this no matter what” or “depending on your facility, you may want this but may not be needed for all” kind of thing?

I have scrubs already from my undergraduate field experience.

I also have the pocket guide to nutrition assessment and the essential pocket guide for clinical nutrition from class. I’m open to more if I end up doing rotations in areas like peds.

I want to buy a foldable clipboard for clinical… why is the dietetics one twice the price of nursing ones on Amazon?! Do I “need” the dietetics one or can I get by with a blank one (or would the nursing one still be helpful if I want to save money but still have something?)

Anything else you found helpful or wish you had?

I have a new RD coworker (she’s been here 7 months, graduated and became an RD in June). I know we all have different clinical experiences, which is the whole part of dietetics is having different ways of thinking and clinical judgement. She thinks everything we all do is just wrong. She’s trying to implement new policies and do XYZ. We are salary and she usually works AT LEAST 12 hour days (idk why that bothers me but it does; probably because she is young and I don’t want her to burn out). I’m a newer RD myself, but I have so many dietetics experiences that now I’m more inclined to put my 8 hours in and go home, not going above and beyond like she is. I know her DI was a lot different than what she is doing now and we do things differently here. I’m amendable to change, but I feel like changing too much and once is why she’s getting so much push back. She complains to the CNM when people don’t diagnose something the way she would or when she doesn’t agree with a policy we have but the hospital she did her DI did.

It’s honestly just exhausting have someone brand new to the field constantly criticize me and tell me they don’t agree with XYZ that I did. I can back up why I did it, but it’s honestly not worth it to me to justify my clinical judgement to her. I’m not in court.

I’ve tried to talk to her and tell her the rest of the team pushes back because she’s trying to do so much at once but she doesn’t listen. We have weekly meetings as a team and she always has something to add about what she thinks we should be improving on/changing.

It’s exhausting.

What do you guys do in this situation?

Hey guys! If anyone can answer my question it would be really helpful. I currently hold a Nutritional Science (Dietetics option) BS degree with a DPD verification statement, however the master’s program I want to apply to is not ACEND accredited. What does this mean exactly? Will I still be able to become an RDN?

I work with low-income populations; one patients’s caregiver is dumpster-diving for food.

They were provided basic safety guidelines; I discouraged the practice and offered a food pantry bag. They declined. Client gets home-delivered meals AND regular oral nutrition supplementation.

I can empathize; having to do the same in my teens. Even though I discourage the practice. They will still dumpster dive. And honestly this may become more commonplace with the direction of society. Even if not now, the future will likely require dietitian address/familiarity.

Has anyone addressed this from a RD/Dietitian perspective?

Anyone develop any basic nutrition safety guidelines for Dumpster Diving? (I don’t want to reinvent the wheel).

Hello everyone! Does anybody know how one can get a job at Morrison Healthcare? I’ve applied to 25 positions with Morrison Healthcare over the years but have never even gotten a first interview. There’s a position they recently posted that I’m super interested in as that line of work is something I’ve been wanting to do for so long! How can I get my foot in the door with this company?? TIA!

So I haven’t been an AND member for a while now and honestly their website is kind of confusing lol I don’t entirely understand their benefits or what they have to offer? At one point when I was an intern, I know they had a way for you to print out educational handouts but even when I was a member, I never figured out where to do that? Does anyone here use AND? Pros, cons, is it worth it? What do yall mainly utilize it for if yall are members??

Ok I have posted here a couple of other times but I have some more detailed thoughts and I want some feedback.

• I am a 4th year science teacher and I am 29 years old.

• I want to transition out of teaching because I do not want to remain in the classroom forever due to the extreme burnout cycle and safety concerns and moving into admin does not sound appealing as I love science.

• It seems to me that all of my existing skills and education would be utilized by this particular career change which is alleviating the feeling that I wasted my 20s. I have the Master's, I have experience teaching science, and I have food service experience.

• In college I wanted to be in a health profession but life happened and I struggled to make it happen so I ended up teaching science instead (long irrelevant story)

• I have an existing Master's degree and I have most of the sciences I need to do a DPD program. I believe I may have to retake a chemistry or microbiology due to age of credits.

• I am most interested in Lamar's online DPD certificate program as it is cheap and fits my need to remain employed full time as long as possible so I can pay down some debts and save up cashI would then want to do a part time internship and work part time (hopefully doing something relevant)

• I have access to a college fund that should cover the costs of becoming an RD so I can do this without incurring any debt

• From what I can tell, RD salaries would fit my needs 60,000+ is fine with me

• It seems quite possible to explore a variety of roles in dietetics and I tend to enjoy changing jobs or job sites every 2-3 years.

Does this seem like a rational decision? Any other factors I should consider? Is there a lot of burnout among dieticians? Teaching is basically a burnout rollercoaster each school year and I want to get off this ride.

I'm taking the dietetic technician exam soon and would appreciate any prep work/practice exams that are useful for studying to! Links to all of that would be much appreciated

Would love to hear how people across the country are feeling about Davita right now. I’m the fourth dietitian in my region to give my notice this month. Although every clinic is unique, the culture in my workplace is absolutely abusive, emotionally and mentally draining. The beauty and pros of outpatient dietetics are completely outweighed. I’ve been feeling this way over last year but it’s gotten to the point where I need to take care of myself and remove myself from the horribly toxic environment despite having no back up right now. How are others doing with the constant threatening of our hours, binders in the bundle, and having an influx of busy work with no compensation or time to see our patients anymore?

What is the benefit of giving interns extra homework to the extent that they can’t do their actual coursework because the only time they have is filled with this extra work? My friend doesn’t have a Reddit account so I wanted to post this for her. So she’s doing her internship and graduate work and has told me that even after she’s done being on site she still isn’t done with the extra work her preceptor has given her because it’s time consuming so she has to finish it home. By the time she’s done she’s worn out and has to get dinner ready for the kids and has to go into site the next day which her preceptor has more additional work for her. She said it just feels like busy work and unnecessary. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance!

I'll try to make this brief! Im a junior in college and out nutrition professors are pushingnus extremely hard to apply for our masters. I know par tof is is that we dont have many people do our masters program, and theyve explained that to us as a reason. My current professor is both in charcge of dietetic intership admissions AND things dealing with the masters program, so i find it hard to trust her to not be biased in pushing us to get our masters. I dont want to be an RD, i wanted to work in food inspection but i had my options open. She told me about being a food service director thats apparently very lucrative and to my delight, both a role with low competition and tasks id love to do ans already do in my free time. Im jsut seeking objective advice from people outside of my school. She said its better to get my masters so my options are more open, which i agree with. But some life circumstances make me a little hesitant to go for it.

Hi everyone! Hopefully this post is allowed. I’m a pharmacist looking for help regarding a patient’s BMR calculation. My patient sees a dietitian and the dietitian told her that her BMR was 1500. She was concerned because she used an online calculator and got a BMR of 1700 and doesn’t want to eat less than her BMR and risk slowing her metabolism. I also calculated it and got ~1700. Am I calculating this wrong? Would 200 calories make a difference? She is 26, weighs 215, and is 5’6”. Thanks in advance!

What do you recommend I tell this patient? She's averaging 500-700 kcals daily (prior to her initial consult with me today), and unable to eat much because of the sleeve and medication. She is also menopausal and with a h/o PCOS. Believes complex carbs are "the enemy" in the setting of menopause and PCOS, and is also hyper concerned about all the food additives in American food, which I get. She's not working out at all, so I encouraged her to start that and, more than anything, weight training in hopes it helps with weight loss. However, I told her I believe the biggest issue is the lack of appetite due to the medication. I told her she's risking malnutrition because of her minimal intake. She's not willing to give up the medication and she also refuses to accept the fact that she may stay fat for the rest of her life, her words exactly. Thank you in advance.

When assessing protein needs in the case of nutrition support, do you use IBW if BMI >30 (so ABW if BMI < 30?) or something else like if BMI > 25 or 27 you'd use IBW? Would you base your decision on age? I work in critical care and surgery.

I've been doing ABW if BMI < or = 30 but today my coworkers said that's too much protein and they would use IBW if BMI > 25. My pt is 72kg, 155cm so BMI 30 so a BMI of 25 is 60kg. 2g/kg in this case is a difference between 120g and 144g so I'm aware it doesn't really matter 😅

Good afternoon. I had posted about potentially making a career change here a few days ago. I already have a Master of Education so as far as I understand, I only need to get my DPD verification statement and complete a DI. I see that Lamar has a fully online affordable certificate that meets my first need and I was wondering if anyone else has done that program and had some feedback about it.

Additionally, if your internship was part time or provided a stipend I am interested in hearing about it. I live in Louisiana but we would like to move in the next few years anyway (to Illinois).

I learn by doing and by that, I want to study for the RD Exam by doing practice questions. I already have All Access and their one Mock Exam. I plan to purchase the premium version of Pocket Prep. Are there any other resources with practice questions or exams? I prefer free access since I have already paid for one (and two) services.