Personal Updates: My Journey in the Field of Dietetics + What it Entails

I'm not sure how many people understand how much work goes into becoming a registered dietitian because I sure didn't!! When I started this journey back in 2018 when I enrolled at Framingham State University (FSU), I didn't truly understand what the next 6-7 years of my life would look like. I was under the impression that I was graduating with my bachelors in 4 years and I would start my career like everyone else. But what I soon found out was that this profession entails a lot more work than I thought. This post is not meant to brag about all the work I've done and will do (well maybe just a little bit ;) ) but to educate people on the hard work that goes into this profession and information for anyone who may be interested in it!

What You Can Do as a RD

Dietitians do so much more than just come up with meal plans and tell people what to eat! Here is a list of the many different jobs a RD can have:

• Clinical -helping with disease management, using food as medicine, nutrition education, diabetes education and meal planning etc.

• Community and public health -help with policy changes etc.

• Consulting/opening up a private practice -make meal plans, help individuals meet their goals etc.

• Foodservice -oversee everything from food purchasing and preparation to staff management etc.

• Research and education -teach physicians, nurses, dietetic students, and others the science of food and nutrition, also conduct experiments to further the understanding and science of nutrition etc.

• Sports nutrition -guide and assess nutrition needs for athletes to improve performance in both recreation and professional sports etc.

The Steps to Become a Dietitian

Unless you know a dietitian, you probably don't know about the amount of work and hoops you need to jump through to complete this certification and licensure. There are 4 main steps you need to complete to receive your registration and licensure:

• 1. complete a bachelor's degree in dietetics

• 2. complete a masters degree in anything of your choosing (effective in 2024, wasn't a rule in the past)

• 3. complete a 9-12 month long unpaid, supervised dietetic internship (p.s. you pay for this, anywhere from $1,00-$15,000...)

• 4. pass the national registered dietitian exam

The Kinds of Classes You Need to Take

You may think that all dietitians do is create meal plans and tell people what to eat but they do so much more than that. When I started this degree I thought I was just going to learn about foods, what's healthy/what's not, how to counsel people about weight loss/weight gain, and maybe an anatomy class or two, spoiler: I was very, VERY wrong. When I started signing up for classes and looked at my entire degree outline I almost fainted when I saw the amount of chemistry, biology, anatomy and science labs I needed to take.

When I graduated high school I never thought I would be taking another chemistry class again but instead I was met with the challenge of passing four, all with 3 hour labs attached. Dietitians take similar classes to pre-med students, and they are basically the doctors of food!!

Here is a list of the undergraduate classes I needed to take to be able to move forward and partake in a dietetic internship to become a RD:

• Fundamentals of Nutrition Science

• Food, Culture and Society

• Experimental Study of Food with lab

• Human Nutrition Science

• Medical Nutrition Therapy I

• Foodservice Systems

• Community Nutrition

• Medical Nutrition Therapy II

• General Psychology

• Introduction to Statistics

• Principles of Chemistry with lab

• Principles of Chemistry and Quantitative Analysis with lab

• Organic Chemistry with lab

• Biochemistry with lab

• Principles of Biology with lab

• Principles of Human Physiology with lab

• Microbiology with lab

There were plenty of times where I questioned "is this really worth it?". I was drowning in work 95% of the time, had to miss out on many social events because I needed to study, partook in countless supplemental instruction sessions with teachers assistants, stayed up past midnight on nights before exams and the stress I felt was nonstop.

Not only is it important to pass your classes (obviously) but you need to do well. After graduating with you BS in dietetics you must apply to a masters program which can be competitive and your GPA matters. The higher your GPA the easier it will be to get into a program and the same thing goes for the internship. You must apply to a dietetic internship and acceptance is not guaranteed, you're chances are better if you have a good GPA, extracurriculars and stellar work resume with some prior nutrition experience.

The Internship

A dietetic internship is a 9-12 month long program (sometimes longer if you are doing a part-time program). This is where you get hands on experience working professionals in the field in 3 different aspects of nutrition, community nutrition like SNAP, WIC, YMCA etc., clinical nutrition like a hospital, or skilled nursing facility and lastly a foodservice rotation like in a school, college or anywhere serving a large number of people. In total you must complete 1,000 hours of supervised practice and each rotation has a different requirement for how many hours you must d0.

Like I said before, these internships are not guaranteed, you must apply and hope you are accepted, similarly to college. Also similarly to college you pay thousands of dollars to do these unpaid internships along with completion of many assignments and projects. Each internship program is run a little bit differently and have unique offerings and benefits.

Where I'm at Now

So where am I at in this whole process? I have completed my BS in dietetics from Framingham State University (phew) and I am now currently working on masters in nutrition education also from FSU! Also this past month I was accepted into a dietetic internship through Wellness Workdays, a nutrition and worksite wellness company. Applying and waiting to hear back from an internship is one of the most stressful process' I've been through. Not only is it stressful because if you are not accepted you need to wait a full year to apply again but the application process is very timely and you need to have references, a sparkling resume, upload many documents and write a personal statement. Not to mention, you are paying a couple hundred dollars in application fees so having to do it a second time is costly.

I will be completing my internship part-time as well as taking graduate classes to finish up my masters degree. You can not complete your internship or sit down for the RD exam until you obtain your master's degree. It will take me about 1.5 years to finish both my internship and degree and then sit for my test (and hopefully pass!!). But, I cannot wait for the journey and will keep you all updated as I go through the motions of this profession :)