DTR here with over 20 years of experience. Worked in both acute (clinical DTR) and LTC (Dietary Manager). Current salary is 45/hr. Live and work in California. I’ve always wanted to pursue the RD credential but would have to start all over again :( Is it better to just stay as a DTR considering my pay isn’t that bad at all? I also have an MBA. Thank you!
Hello, I am a newer RD (working for 2 years), and I am experiencing burnout with telehealth. Talking to patients everyday can be very draining, and it's frustrating when they don't do what you tell them to do. I am wanting to get out of patient care. What type of jobs should I be looking for that don't deal with patients, but require an RD license?
I'm looking for some perspective from other RDs.
I accepted my first clinical RD position last year. During negotiations, I asked if there was any flexibility on salary and was told that the amount I was offered was the highest they could go. Based on that, I accepted the offer.
Now, only months later, the exact same position was posted again. The new posting lists a salary range with a maximum that's nearly $9,000 higher than what I was told was the absolute maximum.
I'm happy in the role and don't want to come across as difficult, but I can't help feeling frustrated. Has anyone experienced something similar?
Would you bring this up with your manager or HR? Is it reasonable to ask for a compensation review based on the updated posted range, or should I just wait until my annual review?
I'd really appreciate hearing how others have handled situations like this.
This is just a vent post, but after being in telehealth for 2 years, I’m burning out SO badly and honestly don’t know where to go next.
How are you all seeing 5-6+ patients a day and not getting burnt out? Being that they are usually 1-hour long appointments, then plus charting, I really feel like I’m working full 7-8+ hour days. While I definitely appreciate being able to WFH, for the pay, it really doesn’t seem worth it.
I don’t wanna go back to clinical, already did public health (too much fieldwork,) and every remote position I’d want has 100+ applicants. Honestly feeling pretty hopeless and discouraged.
Any advice is appreciated, but honestly just made this post to let you know that if you’re feeling the same, you’re not alone!! I wish we could start some sort of petition 😔
For context, I majored in business as an undergrad in the mid-1990s. I worked in sales for a few years and then around age 30 I made the decision to follow my passion - nutrition - and become an RD. I was (and am) an endurance athlete and found my interest in nutrition thusly.
I took undergrad classes for a semester (because no science background) and got into a MS program in nutrition shortly thereafter as a provisional admission. I went on to win scholarships and graduate with honors, and then to my internship.
I was one of two males in my graduate program cohort. Not a problem for me; I have many female friends and always have. Grad school was great, but my internship experience was extremely discouraging. First - not allowed to work another job, not even part-time. My preceptors were, for lack of a better term, awful. The two clinical RDs in my clinical rotation could barely be bothered with me and treated me as if I were simply free labor - which, of course, I was. They taught me nothing and I rarely got to even round with them, they just sent me off to do tasks they preferred to avoid. They shared a small office and made me STAND IN THE HALL outside of it while spoke with one another. It reeked of bleach because one of them sterilized everything - including her hands to the point of the skin being horribly cracked - with Chlorox wipes. I nearly quit twice just because I didn't see the point, other than to satisfy the requirement and check the box.
I stuck it out and passed the exam on my first try. I got my first job in a local school system, then worked as a dialysis RD for a while, then in elder care as a nutrition care manager. I also did clinical work at a local hospital and worked on interdisciplinary wound care teams, which I enjoyed.
At no point did I ever clear over $50,000 a year.
I next pivoted to private practice, working with athletes for both nutrition and coaching. While it was fun and rewarding, I found the constant client churn (particularly on the nutrition side, as I did not try to retain clients for RD work once they had reached a certain point of stability) and low ceiling (only so many hours per day) to be frustrating. I realized I was now once again spending a big chunk of my time in sales and marketing and figured I'd go all-in if that was the case.
I leveraged my MS in a science field and my clinical experience (and ease in working with physicians) into a medical device clinical sales role in the wound care space. 8 years later I just landed my dream job in this field and hope to retire here.
I'm not sure why I shared this. Maybe because I hate that I had very little chance to earn the living my family needed in my chosen field. I don't regret my pivot, but I could have probably become a PA almost as quickly and the compensation is there in a way it just isn't for RDs.
I'm very happy with where I ended up, but it happened because RD work was just untenable for me. Don't be afraid to use your clinical education for something else in the healthcare sphere if you need to change things up to meet your career goals..
Stupid question. I have a patient who has been making changes (adding vegetables, whole grains, lean meats), exercising daily (weight training and cardio), but her lipid labs came back worse, and her A1C increased by .1%. I know she has a sweet tooth, obese, and history of poor sleep. She recently started using a CPAP machine and Wegovy pills.
I know for lipids - increase soluble fiber, lower saturated fat and concentrated sweets, and increase omega-3. I know poor sleep can also be a major factor. But what other factors should I pay attention to? Any additional tips or resources to help?
Well, I just got let go from my clinical job for not meeting enough productivity/patients. I kinda saw this coming and gaslit myself to hang on for as long as I could to improve but… meh it is what it is. Just feeling like I’m not cut out to be a clinical RD. Not sure what I’ll do next but I’m just laying here on the couch for a bit to decompress. No shade to my coworkers and work as they did what they could to help me (though at times it was feeling very corporate and everyone was shuffling around as new people were filling new manager positions so I felt like I was out of the loop for a bit, new director… new CNM). Would honestly want to do more database/informatics stuff now than patient facing work (yes call me a baby, 2 yo RD who’s sick of dietetics for the most part). I love nutrition just don’t like the job as much as I used to. But yeah… for those who randomly read this. Thanks. I’ll probably be okay. Just brain.exe has stopped working for now. For those who still love their job and are continuing, keep doing what you’re doing to give positive vibes to this subreddit (I can see the negativity already… so I just don’t want to add any more).
Have a nice day!
Hi all,
My wife has applied for this role in our local hospital, which will be a role within the A+E department.
She has an interview after the weekend. We have both worked a number of years in the NHS, and I have worked with many dieticians. However this seems to be a role that I haven’t seen before so I’m not sure exactly what it will involve (perhaps the job is/was known by a different name before?)
I’d like to support her and help her prepare some relevant bits for the interview.
It seems to be a position mostly supporting the dieticians, whilst also liaising with the SALT teams. Summary of the position shown in the photo below.
Anyone shed some more light on more detailed aspects of the job? What might be likely to come up in interview? If people currently in the job enjoy it? Thank you.
Hi! New adult rd here. There’s a 5 year old little girl that ate great until 3 years old and now suddenly is very picky. She doesn’t have a fear of choking on foods, but does get anxious around new foods saying things like “oh I’m gonna puke”. She has safe foods but even some of those are now a no. They’re having a hard time getting her to eat anything unless it’s a sugary carb or “junk” food.
Foods she will eat include: hot dogs, chicken nuggets, some lunch meat, some pasta, cheese, some fruits.
I mentioned blending veggies into pasta sauces, maybe trying a smoothie but calling it a milkshake and mix in a kids carnation mix. Other than that I’m not sure what to tell them. Any tips or resources appreciated!!
Hi, looking for some help/advice regarding ED consults.
I run a 1/week community clinic that is attached to a hospital focusing on ED caseload. I'm the only dietitian so theres nobody to discuss clients with except the psychiatrist and psychologists.
I recently got feedback from a GP that a patient (now discharged due to going private) stated my clinic was very unhelpful and she didn't want to see me anymore.
The main reasons being: I didn't set goals with her, I "told her to eat more" and didn't immediately book a follow up appointment.
I'm feeling quite frustrated with this because I looked at the consult notes and with this client:
She agreed to these goals before leaving the session.
I'm stuck feeling like her feedback was not true at all and I've now got this GP who thinks I suck?? I didn't make a goal about her eating more, it was just redistribution of her meal times. And the plan was that if she didn't manage that, to look at it at a subsequent appointment and figure out why it didn't work and how to overcome it/make it manageable. (No subsequent appointment happened as she ignored all my calls to book one).
Does anyone have feedback as to whether the goals actually suck and I need to get better, or if its more she's just really mentally unwell and wasn't going to engage anyway?
If you’re a dietitian considering working for Allara, here’s my experience. I joined genuinely excited and optimistic about the opportunity, but it quickly became clear that the reality was very different from what I had expected.
From the beginning, I felt heavily micromanaged. There was constant monitoring of metrics, expectations around visit lengths, and pressure to meet productivity goals that often felt more important than providing individualized patient care. Instead of feeling trusted as a licensed healthcare professional, I often felt like every aspect of my schedule and documentation was being scrutinized.
The emphasis seemed to be on maximizing billable time rather than allowing dietitians to use their clinical judgment. There was significant pressure to schedule 60 minute weekly follow-up visits, even when a patient didn’t necessarily need that amount of time or the frequency of those visits.
On top of that, policies, expectations, and performance metrics seemed to be constantly changing, making it difficult to keep up and creating an environment that felt stressful and unpredictable rather than supportive.
I frequently felt stressed and anxious about meeting metrics that didn’t always align with what I believed was best for my patients.
I ultimately decided to leave because I wanted to practice nutrition in a setting where clinical judgment, patient care, and provider autonomy were valued more than productivity metrics.
This is just my personal experience, and others may have had a different one.
I’m in a long-term care facility and part of that means I have to audit the kitchen every month for texture, compliance, test tray, temperatures, and overall kitchen sanitation. But I’m not gonna lie. I absolutely dread this part of my job because you’re looking for problems essentially that need to be fixed and usually the Dietary supervisors aren’t very happy with you because you have to turn this into the Administrator even if you give them the heads up first it’s never received well.
I’m very good friends with Dietary supervisor at my current facility, but whenever it comes to the audits it’s never exactly a happy moment for her of course. But this month specifically I did it, and there were problems with the temperatures at point, the ice machine had built up inside, and there were other problems that needed to be addressed.
She got so mad at me and flipped out saying that I’m writing things that aren’t that big of a deal and when I try to explain to her that we’re literally in window for survey and we need to be ready for state. She raised her voice at me and said you’re not state.
And like that’s literally the whole purpose of me doing the audit is so that when state comes, we’re in compliance. I feel deflated because I’m not trying to shit on her and say that she’s a bad manager that’s never been the point. I’m literally just doing my job and now our relationship is weird because of it .
Has anyone else felt this way before?
L
They are all legit thinking the world is a giant scam.
One said he did the carnivore diet , fell off the bandwagon, I guess started eating again then got fatty liver. Now his doctor is telling him to go on the Mediterranean diet (ofcourse no referral to a dietitian but blantly gave diet advise without an assessment 🙄)
But that whole forum is telling this guy that the reason he has fatty liver is because he ate carbs. When in reality, he probably overwhelmed his system by adding in carbs again too quickly and had rapid regain.
How do people in that forum not see that if you eliminate a complete macronutrient, then eat it suddenly, all your glycogen stores in your body are going to rapidly refill .
His actual goal of care should be a mild calorie deficit with monitoring of his lipid panel with low-calorie diet with Mediterranean diet accents
But my
Biggest peeve here is that the DOCTOR never referred the patient out for an RD assessment
It sucks working in closets.
It sucks when my recommendations aren't read, then I get a phone call at 6pm for recommendations I wrote 2 days back (and have communicated them at huddle each day).
It sucks when my lab values requests never get answered, especially when it comes to refeeding syndrome.
It sucks the pay sucks, even for some management positions.
It sucks when you can't place orders in certain states.
It sucks when a gastric residual of 60mL holds a feeding for 2 days.
It sucks when an ICU patient is severely fluid overloaded because 100ml/hr free water flushes were ordered for some reason, along with NS at 100mL/hr over the weekend.
It sucks when a vented patient isn't fed for 3-5 days without any reason as to why.
Further rant:
I think that our profession needs to be more like the model of a PA or NP: Being able to order labs tests freely, order and modify PN and EN, consult others, etc.
We need to be treated like a specialist… Because we are.
End rant.
I appreciate you all.
Any one else feel like everything is dumped on the RD. Im a seasoned RD, but dont know how much longer i will be able to keep this up.
IFEDD Action Item: Requesting your help putting public pressure on Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.
The company has a new rule that limits nutrition counseling to 5 visits per year regardless of diagnosis, starting August, 24 2026. They say they are doing this because they don’t have evidence that nutrition counseling beyond 5 visits is helpful. They are wrong. This policy for people with eating disorders is dangerous and deadly. You can help.
Please email the email address in the link above - Reddit keeps removing my post when I include the email address.
Don’t overthink it – this doesn’t have to be a formal letter of any kind. The goal is mass public outrage. Share with family, friends, colleagues, everyone. We need emails from every discipline of healthcare providers, as well as clients. Send from all the email addresses you have. I will post an example email in the comments below.
New pt in LTC.
Severe PCM, stage 4 pressure injury, h/o larynx cancer/cachexia, CKD (GFR has been in 40s)
Current wt 89# BMI 14.8.
UBW 116#
Facility wt hx: 6/30 89#, 6/28 92#, 6/21 99#, 6/5 111# (2+ pedal edema on 6/5)
Prior wt hx: 5/29 96#, 5/10 95#, 12/22 119#
Have gone from 1500kcal, to 1800kcal to now 2000kcal. Has been tolerating all feedings. Started with continuous and now on bolus feedings, has tolerated all. Past week no interruptions noted, confirmed correct formula and volumes being given. Nurse and pt confirm have been receiving boluses as ordered. Resident currently constipated.
Current feeding providing 50kcal/kg and 2g protein/kg. I would usually never go this high but she continues to lose wt. Has anyone needed to go higher than this for your pts? Do you feel it would be safe?
What is the consensus on Herbalife products? I learned in school that there were lawsuits against them and some cases led to liver toxicity? These shakes are super popular in the Hispanic community and even I had them before knowing about these risks. Ugh 😩 I’m seeing now they have RD’s working on board with them soo did they change their ingredients? are they safe? what do you tell your patients when they’re consuming these products.
I am pregnant with our first baby and am considering leaving my current role. I make $42/hr full time hours. But find there is a lack of boundaries and constant communication, which I do charge for but considering switching to renal dietitian if there are more boundaries in place. Also benefits would be amazing if possible. The one thing about my job is it’s flexible only 2 days in facility the rest at home.
What is it like being a renal rd and if anyone considered switching. I will also be primarily taking care of baby since my husband makes more in our household.
Any feedback welcomed
Hey everyone! Right now I am finishing up my science prereqs orgo this summer, biochem next semester, then I’m ready to apply to ACEND grad programs. I’m in CA but honestly open to moving anywhere for a fresh start. Fine with online/hybrid too, but really want a program that has an internship/supervised practice built in instead of having to find one myself.
Also I want to know what actually makes someone a strong candidate for these programs? I haven’t been able to shadow an RD yet (companies keep saying they don’t allow it 🙃) and I’m getting a little worried that’ll hurt my application. Anyone been in the same boat or have tips for getting shadowing hours? Are applications competitive,
Background: B.S. Public Health (nutrition), phlebotomy + short diet tech experience, some clinical/community work.
Any program recs or advice are greatly appreciated!!