Dietitians/nutritionists provide and promote optimal nutrition to contribute to the health and well-being of the nation. As health care changes, the roles of dietitians/nutritionists are evolving to include non- traditional responsibilities, in the PHS, as well as in the private sector. To compete in the changing environment and establish a unique role that serves the health care needs of the country, dietitian officers must meet customer's needs, provide cost- beneficial and cost-effective services, and be nutrition leaders in preventive health and health care treatment.

1. Professional Development/Mentoring:
   Decreasing numbers of health care professionals will be expected to provide broad-based, comprehensive services including aspects of care or work from several disciplines. Dietitians must broaden their skill base by multiskilling for example, to include physical assessment, providing comprehensive diabetes education, assessing swallowing function, placing and removing feeding tubes, or serving as managers for multiple hospital departments instead of single entities. This career progression which encompasses integrating continuing education and research into practice will be most successful when mentoring is used. Dietitians must keep pace with the continual evolution of technology in acquiring and applying new skills and accessing information.
   
   
2. Advocacy:
   The profession must facilitate change and dietitians must be able to market their unique qualifications and skills in a changing environment. This two-pronged process can be accomplished by contributions from the profession as a whole and from individual dietitians. For example, the profession may propose, write and/or endorse policy or legislation to include medical nutritional therapy as a reimbursable service in the managed care setting. In contrast, officers working with high risk populations might collect and analyze data to formulate and present program proposals to administrators, convincing them of the cost-benefits of their services. The category must continue to publicize the accomplishments of its officers to enhance our visibility and establish the PHS dietitian as a model for the future.
   
   
3. Expert:
   The dietitian must remain the expert in the science of nutrition and dietetics. The field is broadening necessitating specialization and certification. The public looks to the dietitian/nutrition expert for assistance in evaluating the myriad of nutrition information, mis-information, and products available through the Internet and other media, and translating this information into practical application. Our officers must address global and national nutrition and health concerns, disease prevention, food safety, and food and supplement regulation.
   
   
4. Leadership:
   Dietitians must not only provide leadership to their constituents but network and partner with allied health professionals, community organizations, state and local governments, professional associations, and private industry. Developing and cultivating these relationships is necessary for the continuity of public health, and for the continued effectiveness of the profession. There is a great need for dietitian officers to coordinate the many federal nutrition communications (objectives, reports, programs, educational materials) and interpret them for the public so that the messages are consistent and practical. Dietitian leaders must work with Department of Defense counterparts to develop and implement policy, cross-train officers, and back fill positions in times of military emergencies. In addition we must continue to encourage dietitian officers to be trained in DMAT and CCRF so that they are prepared to respond to national emergencies.
   
   
5. Quality:
   The dietitian must demonstrate the improvement of the quality of care and life, reduction of treatment time, and/or delay or prevention of chronic disease as a result of medical nutrition therapy, while controlling costs. Dietitians must also address the timeliness of services, racial disparities, hard to reach populations, and increased diversity of those practicing in the dietetic profession to meet the expectations of customers. Additionally, the public relies on the profession in the much larger context of safety. Through regulation it is our duty to protect and educate the public from the unknown in the explosion of potentially harmful foods and nutritional products, and non-scientific nutrition information.
   
   
6. Community Outreach:
   In order to obtain successful patient or program outcomes, the scope of treatment must be enlarged to include community components and follow up. We must be creative in developing systems of providing nutrition and health care services to hard to reach populations which can be used as models for the nation in preventing disparity. Dietitians must promote nutrition appropriately throughout the life cycle as nutritional needs, living accommodations, and health care delivery facilities vary. Coordination with allied health professionals in providing comprehensive programs such as Healthy Start, Healthy People 2010, Healthy Lifestyles, Alternative Medicine, etc. will improve the effectiveness of delivery and the outcomes of those we serve.
   
   
7. Centralize Personnel:
   Officers must demonstrate both geographic and program mobility in progressively acquiring responsibility in their career development. Present methods of recruitment and placement are disjointed and ineffective. There must be a centralized procedure for OPDIVs, the officers, and the Office of the Surgeon General to utilize in seeking, and making officer assignments. The plan should be prepared to primarily address public health needs, and then, the needs of the OPDIVs and those of the individual officers. Better utilization of details, co- steps, and inactive reserve officers must be explored. The number of officers is declining at an alarming rate, and will continue without an integrated OPDIV and Office of the Surgeon General approach.