Dietitian and Nutritionist Category
Strategic Planning
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Last updated, May 2006
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