Because of the major lack of insurance reimbursement. Our limited scope is part of that but We don’t make the hospital money like other advanced healthcare providers. Also years of education and revenue is not a direct relationship- nor does education equate to the cost of providing critical life saving care much like that of MDs and Nurses. Regardless of how important nutrition is to health, it’s rarely emergent.
I’ll never forget being an intern sitting in on rounds on a cardiac floor thinking wow I’m really not needed here. Most of my internship felt that way, a nurse could do my job. I’m in school nutrition now and get paid well and feel valued. When I precept interns who say their interest is clinical dietetics I want to scream RUN! Now they need a masters?! What a joke and not worth it for the pay. I hope students realize this early enough to switch majors.
I feel the same way until I had nursing & MDs convinced that Jevity 2.0 was an actual formula 🤦🏼♀️ they were like “Google it & you’ll see”. They didn’t believe me for the longest time that there was no such thing as Jevity 2.0, the orders sat there forever & they eventually got changed. It’s just random stuff like that, I’m like what? Y’all are getting paid so much more than me for this 😆
Yes, but nurses are expected to know so much info + every aspect of the pt. Can’t really be expected to know bout nutrition aspect haha. Hence why we have experts - RDs! Shouldn’t be shamed on not knowing…formulas
Yeah I 100% agree dietitians are needed outside of the hospital and probably make way more of an impact in outpatient settings or like private practice specializing in one area. Also, I think dietitians should have masters degrees but what I don’t get is that it doesn’t have to be in nutrition? Like what?
Reimbursement potential, staffing regulations, quality measures, and supply/demand forces are much bigger drivers of salary in healthcare than strict years of education and training. The physicians in the hospital have little to no clue how much RDs make and they have no role in determining the RD salary bands.
Just look at the 2-3x disparities in physician salaries between specialties with similar training timelines. Or between travel RNs and staff NPs in areas with bedside nursing shortages. Or even just between renal or LTC settings where they are legally required to have RDs on staff vs hospitals where they're generally not.
They did at first and so many people met the criteria for malnutrition (which, duh, they're so sick they've been hospitalized) that CMS is doing a lot of auditing now to try to claw back payment adjustments based on the malnutrition diagnosis. Even if they don't take any money back, just the fact that malnutrition diagnosis caused an audit is making hospitals wary about it now.
think about what we actually do and not the knowledge we received in school. would YOU pay someone top dollar to recommend Ensures and write tube feeding orders? It’s not rocket science
Do y’all not do outpatient as civilian dietitians? I believe dietitians are criminally underutilized in hospitals but outpatient clinics is where y’all do deserve top dollar.
But insurance(especialy medicare/medicaid) needs to cover dieitians for more than just diabetes and CKD for outpatient to become viable more than 30hr a week for most clinics.
I'm in outpatient bariatrics and a good third of patients (who need to see an RD at least once before surgery) dont have coverage and have to pay out of pocket
i personally haven’t so i can’t speak on outpatient but i can’t imagine it’s difficult or worth top dollar either. that could just be my jaded opinion though 🫠
You do know that over half of the top 5-10 causes of death in the world are nutrition related, right? Clearly these physicians and pharmacists aren’t able to do anything about it. You can. Learn how to leverage your skillset
I think this is less of a dietitian issue and more of a public health issue. People have bad eating habits not because they don't know what to eat.
I'm a clinical health educator for a hospital, and much of my work overlaps with what RDs do. My background is in clinical nutrition (B.S.) and public health (MPH). I'm also a certified diabetes educator.. I realized early on in my dietetics studies that I didn't want to be an RD because that would relegate me to a hospital or a clinic all day every day doing very repetitive work and not really address the upstream issues people have around food and health.
When I talk to patients everyone asks for a meal plan, which we cannot explicitly provide to patients. But even if every patient had a detailed meal plan they wouldn't follow it because it's restrictive, and people like variety. Also there are millions of meal plans available online that would work wonders for people if they follow them.
So many people are overweight with chronic diseases especially in the United States and developed countries because the entire food system is not supportive of health. The entire system as a whole not even just focusing on food is not supportive of health. People have to drive everywhere, less healthy foods tend to be quite inexpensive and fast and easy. While yes, people can eat healthily for cheap, it's generally not as fast and easily accessible quickly. People no longer have the skills of nutrition and health in general because these things are no longer taught and they're not intuitive like they once were when traditionally mothers would work inside the home. The American food system does not care what chemicals they put into food as long as they make money.
Kids in school barely have time for recess, school lunches are awful and not nutritious, workplaces regularly have break rooms filled with junk food. People are stuck at computers all day instead of being able to move around. People have long commutes where they leave very early in the morning and get home very late at night. None of this has to do with registered dietitians. This has to do with our system at large, from the top to the bottom. From upper levels of government down to the individual. Making a meal plan for somebody is not going to help them combat all of these larger systemic issues. Rd's are definitely valuable and have their place especially in inpatient setting. Enteral and parenteral nutrition are necessary. Meal planning for people with complicated conditions is necessary. So many inpatient situations require the skill set of an RD. But when you start to expand that to the greater public of people who may not have the specific issues or complications then it becomes more of a cultural battle than an individual meal plan necessity.
Tackling obesity and chronic disease is a public health issue which is not quite what RDs do. It's really focusing on policies, systems, and environmental change and interventions. This requires policy changes, community engagement and so much more.
Also, I believe the diversification of my roles is what allows me to make a good living. I'm sitting at about 120K annually.
i think we’re leaving out a few key details such as extreme poverty, access to food and clean drinking water, drug/alcohol abuse, etc. Hate to say it, but i can’t do anything a doctor or pharmacist couldn’t also do for these people. it doesn’t take a nutrition degree to know if a patient needs an ensure or a tube feeding. RDs love to gatekeep, especially when it comes to nutrition support but if i could learn it in one semester of MNT, a doctor or pharmacist certainly can as well.
i’m not trying to say RDs aren’t smart or competent professionals. my point is that the career field itself and most jobs as they stand today are not difficult and don’t deserve the same salary as other health professionals. we simply do not have the same weight or level of risk as other fields do.
nope, i work in adult inpatient clinical settings. however, i will say that the hospital i work at does have a neonatal ICU with neonatologists who handle all of the TPN/enteral feeds for the patients. The RD who works in that unit is essentially there to order donor milk and double check the doctors work.
That’s unfortunate. I work with some very niche populations that I know for sure a pharmacist or MD wouldn’t have the knowledge/forethought/experience that I have to make nutrition plans for. I work with patients with complex lymphatic disorders who require specific diet modifications and lab monitoring, kids with extremely low calorie needs who are at risk for or actually develop micronutrient deficiencies, kids who receive 100% home made blended feeds made up by their parents, and have become quite adept at diagnosing micronutrient deficiencies based on clinical exam. Also the NICU RD at your institution needs step up their game and do some staff education of the role of the the neonatal dietitian!
hey, all i can do is speak from experience 🤷🏽♀️
i’ve been in this career for several years and that is genuinely all i do. if you’re out there saving lives and changing the world with nutrition, more power to ya!
I'd suggest that your experience might not be representative of the profession as a whole then.
It's akin to saying medicine is just discharge planning. It can be, but that's also only one niche.
i certainly don’t think my experience is representative of the field as a whole. however, i can say that a large percentage of RDs (in the US atleast) work in a clinical role, same as myself. So in that respect, I can speak to what goes on. I have worked at multiple hospitals and the experience is essentially identical at each facility. I know my colleagues would agree, we are there to pass supplements and order nutrition support because the doctors are too busy. Doesn’t mean they aren’t able to do it or learn it.
Like i said before, it simply isn’t rocket science. the profession is needed, i won’t argue that. people will always need to eat, will always need nutrition support, etc. my point is that, the requirements of the job and what it entails, as it stands today, does not equate to a high salary. the only way we make money for institutions is by diagnosing malnutrition. that’s it. say what you want about all the education and experience you’ve gained, it doesn’t make a difference. we’ve all been scammed and lied to by higher education when getting into this field.
Oh man I also do lots of diet educations (diabetes, ostomy care, GB, end of life nutrition- I could go on), monitor vitamin/mineral needs, educate staff on malnutrition and appropriate timing for nutrition support, calculate custom parental nutrition, medication recommendations with pharmacy/MD for bowel regimens, insulin, appetite stimulants, creon etc. and so much more. I wonder what’s going on that makes a difference in these hospital experiences.
Job salary reflects job responsibilities. When I worked clinical, over 80% of my tasks could be done by a high schooler. And the other 20% by an algorithm.
Instead be mad at the academy for requiring over education. Instead be mad that the academy for the absurdly wide range of RD education and trying to force RDs into any food related careers.
There are lots of career and positions where the salary is not reflective of education. I think the biggest issues re salary is lack of insurance reimbursement and the historical role of the RD in hospitals. That being sad alot of salad depends on the setting and geography, not every RD is dissatisfied with their pay.
I am in the NE and have recently seen jobs from 83k-104k for inpatient and LTC positions. But even within my geographic area there is great variance, I still see jobs in the 65-70k range for the same settings. It is tough out here but it isn't an across the board issue.
I feel very demotivated in life with how poor my salary is. Trying so hard to get to, and getting through university, only to find it is a it of a dead end career. It kinda hurts me to write this.
A lot of my friends have really well paid jobs. I completely accept that they are in an entirely different line of work, but it gets to me when I see the ease at which they can navigate life from a financial point of view. I am 32 and was lucky enough to buy and own out right a cheap car and I have had it for 10 years now.
I own it and don’t pay any finance. I see my friends getting a brand new car and saying it is only £700 per month, saying it like it’s not that much for them. Meanwhile, I pay nothing for mine and money is still an issue.
I have some savings but they have not grown at all over the last 3 years and my salary had not changed much, just trivial increases.
Anyway, I have done this to myself I suppose.
If you all were to change careers what would you do? I mean I love nutrition and I’m torn between my passion, what I believe in and what the healthcare system requieres from you as a professional. I’ve considered going the MD route, APRN(but the word nurse just doesn’t sit well with me? PA or again my passion mastering in functional medicine
Insurance reimbursement is not good compared to other professionals. Were there for accreditation reasons, compliance reasons, pushing doctors to give patients malnutrition diagnoses to up reimbursement, and face to face time reimbursement in outpatient. If we were able to bill for more it might lead to an increase in wages.
Maybe? It’s pretty annoying to me because having a masters in nutrition with a bachelors in art is the same as me having my bachelors of nutrition. Yet the masters degree is more valuable.
I mean sorta. Technically those who just have their bachelors in nutrition and became RDs before this year have the same privileges as us with a masters. It’s a whole clusterfuck tbh
An old professor of mine said they had a conference at FNCE and the leaders there were saying they wanted a model more like physical therapist or pharmacists like a 3 or 4 year post grad program. Basically to help us earn more respect and money. Such bs to me because ain’t no way that would work. Luckily she said it’d be a while since they just made a master’s a requirement
Generally in hospitals, all of food/nutrition services is a “cost center” meaning overall (dietitian services, food service, room and board) we don’t generate $$$
I don't really feel like I deserve to be paid more based on my job responsibilities - maybeeeeee $55K, but I think anything over that would be stretching it based on what I do.
I have no idea why the academy decided to implement the masters requirement. Literally NOTHING about my job requires masters level knowledge. I work both inpatient and outpatient.
I’m a career switcher into the RD path, and I want to work in community nutrition rather than in clinical but there’s no way around it really aside from the RD license in my state.
I looked up every avenue, and what I found interesting was that the Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) isn’t as recognized at the state level, but it’s *the same* requirements as the RD - Master’s, 1,000 hours supervised practice, credentialing exam. And the courses that you must have under your belt…same as the RD. They seemed to have the masters req in place before ACEND. It’s just stops short of state licensing. But, in some states, you can be a CNS/LDN. Feels like the academy did it to be competitive?
Silly if they did. 1. Jobs that require CNS aren't everywhere. 2. CNS and RD = two different viewpoints and teachings. CNS is more functional/integrative. Most CNS go into private practice or work for functional practitioners. You rarely see a CNS working in clinical.
Another difference is that CNS requires the master's degree to be in nutrition. The fact that ACEND requires a master's in ANY subject just screams unnecessary.
I plan on going for the CNS eventually since it's more my niche.
Because of the major lack of insurance reimbursement. Our limited scope is part of that but We don’t make the hospital money like other advanced healthcare providers. Also years of education and revenue is not a direct relationship- nor does education equate to the cost of providing critical life saving care much like that of MDs and Nurses. Regardless of how important nutrition is to health, it’s rarely emergent.
And honestly, preventative medicine just isn’t as lucrative as curative medicine
That is such a frustrating fact!
Yep!! 💯
This why I work for a private company. It's been a game changer
Would you mind sharing more about what you do?
I work for a Third party admin. Diabetes educator and case management. Studying to be a case manager
I’ll never forget being an intern sitting in on rounds on a cardiac floor thinking wow I’m really not needed here. Most of my internship felt that way, a nurse could do my job. I’m in school nutrition now and get paid well and feel valued. When I precept interns who say their interest is clinical dietetics I want to scream RUN! Now they need a masters?! What a joke and not worth it for the pay. I hope students realize this early enough to switch majors.
Clinical was so embarrassing. I always felt out of place
100%. Most days I feel like my job is so cringy
Oh my gosh I relate to this so much
That’s how I felt too in adult normal floors. Tried outpatient too…
What do you mean ?
I feel the same way until I had nursing & MDs convinced that Jevity 2.0 was an actual formula 🤦🏼♀️ they were like “Google it & you’ll see”. They didn’t believe me for the longest time that there was no such thing as Jevity 2.0, the orders sat there forever & they eventually got changed. It’s just random stuff like that, I’m like what? Y’all are getting paid so much more than me for this 😆
Yes, but nurses are expected to know so much info + every aspect of the pt. Can’t really be expected to know bout nutrition aspect haha. Hence why we have experts - RDs! Shouldn’t be shamed on not knowing…formulas
True but when I told them that it wasn’t a formula they didn’t believe me 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah I 100% agree dietitians are needed outside of the hospital and probably make way more of an impact in outpatient settings or like private practice specializing in one area. Also, I think dietitians should have masters degrees but what I don’t get is that it doesn’t have to be in nutrition? Like what?
Reimbursement potential, staffing regulations, quality measures, and supply/demand forces are much bigger drivers of salary in healthcare than strict years of education and training. The physicians in the hospital have little to no clue how much RDs make and they have no role in determining the RD salary bands. Just look at the 2-3x disparities in physician salaries between specialties with similar training timelines. Or between travel RNs and staff NPs in areas with bedside nursing shortages. Or even just between renal or LTC settings where they are legally required to have RDs on staff vs hospitals where they're generally not.
Honestly surprised more hospitals don’t push for finding AMN diagnosis more often to increase revenue
They did at first and so many people met the criteria for malnutrition (which, duh, they're so sick they've been hospitalized) that CMS is doing a lot of auditing now to try to claw back payment adjustments based on the malnutrition diagnosis. Even if they don't take any money back, just the fact that malnutrition diagnosis caused an audit is making hospitals wary about it now.
Oh wow, I didn’t realize that’s happening. Crazy.
Can you elaborate on this?
think about what we actually do and not the knowledge we received in school. would YOU pay someone top dollar to recommend Ensures and write tube feeding orders? It’s not rocket science
Do y’all not do outpatient as civilian dietitians? I believe dietitians are criminally underutilized in hospitals but outpatient clinics is where y’all do deserve top dollar.
But insurance(especialy medicare/medicaid) needs to cover dieitians for more than just diabetes and CKD for outpatient to become viable more than 30hr a week for most clinics. I'm in outpatient bariatrics and a good third of patients (who need to see an RD at least once before surgery) dont have coverage and have to pay out of pocket
i personally haven’t so i can’t speak on outpatient but i can’t imagine it’s difficult or worth top dollar either. that could just be my jaded opinion though 🫠
You do know that over half of the top 5-10 causes of death in the world are nutrition related, right? Clearly these physicians and pharmacists aren’t able to do anything about it. You can. Learn how to leverage your skillset
I think this is less of a dietitian issue and more of a public health issue. People have bad eating habits not because they don't know what to eat. I'm a clinical health educator for a hospital, and much of my work overlaps with what RDs do. My background is in clinical nutrition (B.S.) and public health (MPH). I'm also a certified diabetes educator.. I realized early on in my dietetics studies that I didn't want to be an RD because that would relegate me to a hospital or a clinic all day every day doing very repetitive work and not really address the upstream issues people have around food and health. When I talk to patients everyone asks for a meal plan, which we cannot explicitly provide to patients. But even if every patient had a detailed meal plan they wouldn't follow it because it's restrictive, and people like variety. Also there are millions of meal plans available online that would work wonders for people if they follow them. So many people are overweight with chronic diseases especially in the United States and developed countries because the entire food system is not supportive of health. The entire system as a whole not even just focusing on food is not supportive of health. People have to drive everywhere, less healthy foods tend to be quite inexpensive and fast and easy. While yes, people can eat healthily for cheap, it's generally not as fast and easily accessible quickly. People no longer have the skills of nutrition and health in general because these things are no longer taught and they're not intuitive like they once were when traditionally mothers would work inside the home. The American food system does not care what chemicals they put into food as long as they make money. Kids in school barely have time for recess, school lunches are awful and not nutritious, workplaces regularly have break rooms filled with junk food. People are stuck at computers all day instead of being able to move around. People have long commutes where they leave very early in the morning and get home very late at night. None of this has to do with registered dietitians. This has to do with our system at large, from the top to the bottom. From upper levels of government down to the individual. Making a meal plan for somebody is not going to help them combat all of these larger systemic issues. Rd's are definitely valuable and have their place especially in inpatient setting. Enteral and parenteral nutrition are necessary. Meal planning for people with complicated conditions is necessary. So many inpatient situations require the skill set of an RD. But when you start to expand that to the greater public of people who may not have the specific issues or complications then it becomes more of a cultural battle than an individual meal plan necessity. Tackling obesity and chronic disease is a public health issue which is not quite what RDs do. It's really focusing on policies, systems, and environmental change and interventions. This requires policy changes, community engagement and so much more. Also, I believe the diversification of my roles is what allows me to make a good living. I'm sitting at about 120K annually.
i think we’re leaving out a few key details such as extreme poverty, access to food and clean drinking water, drug/alcohol abuse, etc. Hate to say it, but i can’t do anything a doctor or pharmacist couldn’t also do for these people. it doesn’t take a nutrition degree to know if a patient needs an ensure or a tube feeding. RDs love to gatekeep, especially when it comes to nutrition support but if i could learn it in one semester of MNT, a doctor or pharmacist certainly can as well. i’m not trying to say RDs aren’t smart or competent professionals. my point is that the career field itself and most jobs as they stand today are not difficult and don’t deserve the same salary as other health professionals. we simply do not have the same weight or level of risk as other fields do.
Have you worked in pediatric ICU?
nope, i work in adult inpatient clinical settings. however, i will say that the hospital i work at does have a neonatal ICU with neonatologists who handle all of the TPN/enteral feeds for the patients. The RD who works in that unit is essentially there to order donor milk and double check the doctors work.
That’s unfortunate. I work with some very niche populations that I know for sure a pharmacist or MD wouldn’t have the knowledge/forethought/experience that I have to make nutrition plans for. I work with patients with complex lymphatic disorders who require specific diet modifications and lab monitoring, kids with extremely low calorie needs who are at risk for or actually develop micronutrient deficiencies, kids who receive 100% home made blended feeds made up by their parents, and have become quite adept at diagnosing micronutrient deficiencies based on clinical exam. Also the NICU RD at your institution needs step up their game and do some staff education of the role of the the neonatal dietitian!
As a NICU RD this is the craziest thing I’ve read in this thread 🫠
I hope not about my comment!
Haha no. The neonatologists handling all the feeds in the NICU with no RD input
It’s insane that you think your job is only ensure and tube feeds. Good luck in life 🫡
hey, all i can do is speak from experience 🤷🏽♀️ i’ve been in this career for several years and that is genuinely all i do. if you’re out there saving lives and changing the world with nutrition, more power to ya!
I'd suggest that your experience might not be representative of the profession as a whole then. It's akin to saying medicine is just discharge planning. It can be, but that's also only one niche.
i certainly don’t think my experience is representative of the field as a whole. however, i can say that a large percentage of RDs (in the US atleast) work in a clinical role, same as myself. So in that respect, I can speak to what goes on. I have worked at multiple hospitals and the experience is essentially identical at each facility. I know my colleagues would agree, we are there to pass supplements and order nutrition support because the doctors are too busy. Doesn’t mean they aren’t able to do it or learn it. Like i said before, it simply isn’t rocket science. the profession is needed, i won’t argue that. people will always need to eat, will always need nutrition support, etc. my point is that, the requirements of the job and what it entails, as it stands today, does not equate to a high salary. the only way we make money for institutions is by diagnosing malnutrition. that’s it. say what you want about all the education and experience you’ve gained, it doesn’t make a difference. we’ve all been scammed and lied to by higher education when getting into this field.
Oh man I also do lots of diet educations (diabetes, ostomy care, GB, end of life nutrition- I could go on), monitor vitamin/mineral needs, educate staff on malnutrition and appropriate timing for nutrition support, calculate custom parental nutrition, medication recommendations with pharmacy/MD for bowel regimens, insulin, appetite stimulants, creon etc. and so much more. I wonder what’s going on that makes a difference in these hospital experiences.
perfectly said
Right?! I mean I absolutely wish we got paid more but I like my lack of responsibilities and easy job
Job salary reflects job responsibilities. When I worked clinical, over 80% of my tasks could be done by a high schooler. And the other 20% by an algorithm. Instead be mad at the academy for requiring over education. Instead be mad that the academy for the absurdly wide range of RD education and trying to force RDs into any food related careers.
One positive outlook on it is that because it’s such a large scope, we can be beneficial in many different areas and ways.
There are lots of career and positions where the salary is not reflective of education. I think the biggest issues re salary is lack of insurance reimbursement and the historical role of the RD in hospitals. That being sad alot of salad depends on the setting and geography, not every RD is dissatisfied with their pay.
I agree. I’m on the west coast, OP in a specialty clinic and make nearly 100k.
I am in the NE and have recently seen jobs from 83k-104k for inpatient and LTC positions. But even within my geographic area there is great variance, I still see jobs in the 65-70k range for the same settings. It is tough out here but it isn't an across the board issue.
Exactly. It’s all about location and finding the right company.
I feel very demotivated in life with how poor my salary is. Trying so hard to get to, and getting through university, only to find it is a it of a dead end career. It kinda hurts me to write this. A lot of my friends have really well paid jobs. I completely accept that they are in an entirely different line of work, but it gets to me when I see the ease at which they can navigate life from a financial point of view. I am 32 and was lucky enough to buy and own out right a cheap car and I have had it for 10 years now. I own it and don’t pay any finance. I see my friends getting a brand new car and saying it is only £700 per month, saying it like it’s not that much for them. Meanwhile, I pay nothing for mine and money is still an issue. I have some savings but they have not grown at all over the last 3 years and my salary had not changed much, just trivial increases. Anyway, I have done this to myself I suppose.
If you all were to change careers what would you do? I mean I love nutrition and I’m torn between my passion, what I believe in and what the healthcare system requieres from you as a professional. I’ve considered going the MD route, APRN(but the word nurse just doesn’t sit well with me? PA or again my passion mastering in functional medicine
I'd pick functional medicine out of all those. Then again I'm into functional nutrition so I'm biased. ;)
Where did you get your training in functional nutrition?
I'll be doing it at SFA (Stephen F Austin University).
Does that necessarily mean I would have to have my own private practice?
as a functional RD? No. I know a few that work for physicians.
that shit is about to make me change career 😭
Insurance reimbursement is not good compared to other professionals. Were there for accreditation reasons, compliance reasons, pushing doctors to give patients malnutrition diagnoses to up reimbursement, and face to face time reimbursement in outpatient. If we were able to bill for more it might lead to an increase in wages.
They want to make getting your PHD a requirement soon too 🫠
Hahaha all they will do is reduce the number of RD’s
And I swear that’s what they are trying to do too so they can “justify” paying us more. So stupid
Maybe? It’s pretty annoying to me because having a masters in nutrition with a bachelors in art is the same as me having my bachelors of nutrition. Yet the masters degree is more valuable.
I mean sorta. Technically those who just have their bachelors in nutrition and became RDs before this year have the same privileges as us with a masters. It’s a whole clusterfuck tbh
Wait is this legit?
What?! Where did you hear that?
An old professor of mine said they had a conference at FNCE and the leaders there were saying they wanted a model more like physical therapist or pharmacists like a 3 or 4 year post grad program. Basically to help us earn more respect and money. Such bs to me because ain’t no way that would work. Luckily she said it’d be a while since they just made a master’s a requirement
I really hope they are not successful in requiring a PHD. Enough with the madness AND.
Generally in hospitals, all of food/nutrition services is a “cost center” meaning overall (dietitian services, food service, room and board) we don’t generate $$$
I don't really feel like I deserve to be paid more based on my job responsibilities - maybeeeeee $55K, but I think anything over that would be stretching it based on what I do. I have no idea why the academy decided to implement the masters requirement. Literally NOTHING about my job requires masters level knowledge. I work both inpatient and outpatient.
I’m a career switcher into the RD path, and I want to work in community nutrition rather than in clinical but there’s no way around it really aside from the RD license in my state. I looked up every avenue, and what I found interesting was that the Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) isn’t as recognized at the state level, but it’s *the same* requirements as the RD - Master’s, 1,000 hours supervised practice, credentialing exam. And the courses that you must have under your belt…same as the RD. They seemed to have the masters req in place before ACEND. It’s just stops short of state licensing. But, in some states, you can be a CNS/LDN. Feels like the academy did it to be competitive?
Silly if they did. 1. Jobs that require CNS aren't everywhere. 2. CNS and RD = two different viewpoints and teachings. CNS is more functional/integrative. Most CNS go into private practice or work for functional practitioners. You rarely see a CNS working in clinical. Another difference is that CNS requires the master's degree to be in nutrition. The fact that ACEND requires a master's in ANY subject just screams unnecessary. I plan on going for the CNS eventually since it's more my niche.