March 14, 2014, by Duane Mellor

What is a dietitian?

Part of what we deliver in the Division of Nutritional Sciences is the Master of Nutrition, an undergraduate masters programme which trains students to be eligible to register with the Health and Care Professions Council as Dietitians. The title dietitian (along with dietician) is a legally protected title in the UK. Here at Nottingham we hold the contract for training dietitians for the NHS in the East Midlands.

But what is a dietitian?

In the UK to help answer that question and promote dietetics as a profession the British Dietetic Association is running Dietitians Week in June this year (http://www.trustadietitian.co.uk/dietitians-week/ ) with the aim of raising the profile of the profession nationally. On a global perspective this week we have had the National Dietitian Days in Australia and the United States with Canada having their Dietitian Day on the 19th March 2014

So, we still have said what a dietitian does, it is far more than helping people to lose weight…

Perhaps the best way to answer this is to read what dietitians are doing, kindly Gemma Critchley (who has delivered guest teaching sessions at Nottingham) has curated responses from a number of dietitians on social media and placed them on her blog http://dietitianwithoutborders.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/dietitians-not-just-about-diets-and-weight-loss/

If you want more information about dietetics see http://www.bda.uk.com/careers/

Over the next few months we will post more information about courses and careers in nutrition and dietetics, including the stories of some of our graduates.

Keep reading our blog to find more about not just dietetics but the wide range of nutrition teaching and research we undertake in the division

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