Indigo Robinson

KNH103

Report 6 Clinical Dietitian Job Shadow

Interviewing a Registered Dietitian

For my second report about interviewing dietitians and food professionals, I decided to

interview someone who was a dietitian in the clinical nutrition field. This individual worked with

people to improve their health nutritionally in a private practice clinical setting. She gave some

good advice and gave more of an insight into clinical dietetics. I found this person on the eat

right website by looking up dieticians in the nearby area. Her name and website came up and

when I read her bio, I knew that I would want to talk to her and ask her some questions about her

job. One day, I hope to have a private practice and by asking her some questions, I could be

better prepared to someday have my own practice. Even though I have a long time until then, it is

never too early to start preparing for the future. She also worked in pediatric nutrition which is a

specialized part of nutrition that I have a strong interest in going into during and after my

internship.

The clinical dietician that I interviewed is named Patricia Becker. She works in the

Cincinnati area. Her official job title is private practice pediatric nutrition specialist. This job

includes going through referrals, working with said referrals, and contacting physicians. He job

enabled her to work with hospitals, outpatients, r3ehab, and long term facilities. She sees about

4-5 patients per week counseling them. Her other time includes going through the referrals like I

mentioned earlier.
 Patricias educational background includes a bachelor of science in food and nutrition, a

master of science in human nutrition, and for her after undergrad dietetic experience, she chose

to do a coordinated program instead of a dietetic internship.

For her, the most challenging part of her job is acquiring patients, negotiating prices with

said patients, and getting paid since she has her own private practice. The most rewarding part of

her job was seeing her patients and helping them. As well as helping her patients, she was editing

a textbook and working with authors and publishers.

The educational background that Patricia used the most were the professional

developmental learning skills that she gathered from readings and editing textbooks.

Patricia got into pediatric nutrition by volunteering quite often and by making good

connections and eventually getting referred to jobs from the connections she made.

When asking her why she chose to pursue a masters degree, she said that it was because

she wanted to learn more and after some time with just her bachelors degree, she wanted

something more and wanted to go back and get more knowledge in the form of a masters

degree.

As well as her BS and MS, she has some certifications. They include a CSP (certified

safety professional) and a CNSC (certified nutrition support clinician).

It was great asking Patricia questions and getting her opinion on certain topics of

nutrition. She has a lot of experience and I felt like I learned a lot by speaking to her. Over the

course of this semester, I have learned a great deal of what is expected of me as a future dietician

and by having these job shadows/interviews, I have a better sense of what I will have to do after

undergrad and I have a better understanding of all of the possibilities of jobs that I can pursue.