Dietetics

An interest in nutrition and healthy eating can be pursued academically and can develop into a career as a dietitian, says Richard Haworth of Glasgow Caledonian University

From Which Course? magazine. Issue 30.1

Published: 29 January 2002

We all have to eat and what we eat plays a huge role in our health. A healthy diet prevents disease and this is why dietitians work in health education and health promotion. The trouble is, people take an awful lot of persuading. You can probably look at your own lifestyle and see things you could change. Actually making these changes, however, is often difficult for all of us!

Dietitians treat people who are ill. By changing diet, you can help to reduce symptoms and put people more in control of their illness.

How can I qualify as a dietitian?

You have to study nutrition and dietetics, together with physiology and biochemistry, medicine and pharmacology, psychology and social science. On top of that, there is some microbiology and food science with statistics and research methods.

You need a sound base in science to get on to the Honours degree. You must have chemistry and another science at Advanced or Higher level as well as English and maths at GCSE or better.

You need to be able to interpret scientific and medical information for your patient. In order to give advice, you need to be aware of how people's personal circumstances affect their lives and how your dietary information needs to be adjusted to make it workable.

What are the career prospects?

That depends what you want to do. If you want to work as a dietitian in the NHS, there are currently a lot of jobs. If you want to do research, you'll need to hunt around. Other graduates work in the food industry, in retail chains such as supermarkets or in product development and marketing for food companies. Alternative career choices can be in the social services, catering, teaching or health promotion.

A good place to start is the Health Service Careers leaflet HSC 21 on dietitians. This should be available in your careers library. You could also look at the British Dietetic Association website at: www.bda.uk.com

Alternatively, write to: The British Dietetic Association, 5th Floor, Charles House, 148/9 Great Charles Street Causeway, Birmingham B3 3HT

¿The best way to understand what a dietitian does is to go and see for yourself. Contact the dietitian in your local hospital, explain that you are interested in a career in dietetics and ask to spend some time in their department. You'll get to see the best and the worst of the job and you can ask all the questions you want.

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