LOTS of questions to be answered here about how to become a fully fledged Registered Dietitian! What do you have to do to become officially official? What happens after that? What about jobs & money?
A big question on student’s minds is when and how you officially become a dietitian after years and years of study and practice. Once you pass the CDR board exam, you can call yourself a dietitian and can use those credentials. You do need to pay your initial fee to CDR, or the Commission on Dietetic Registration, ASAP to get and use your CDR number and prove you’re an RD, but the day you pass is your first day as a dietitian.
With that national credential, you can legally call yourself an RD, provide MNT, and sign notes as such. You can begin to get credentialed to bill insurance, buy professional liability insurance, etc. You may have already familiarized yourself with Academy memberships, DPGs, and MIGs already, but if not, all of those are optional but good for networking.
On the state level, there's licensing as well as networking things. For networking, the Academy affiliate associations sponsor local education programs, networking opportunities, scholarship fundraising efforts and more. Membership in an affiliate is included in an Academy membership. DPGs, or Dietetic Practice Groups, are professional interest groups and enhance your specialized knowledge, share practice tips and establish relationships with colleagues from all over the world. MIGs or Member Interest Groups focus on areas other than practice or geographic location.
Most states have licensure laws so credentials are legally protected. A certified or licensed dietitian nutritionist has met their states education requirements necessary to practice their field of expertise. In such places, it's a violation of state law to practice dietetics without a license. In states with no licensure, there is little regulation over the use of the term “nutritionist” and the third-party verification of qualifications, education and experience is never conducted. Check out the Commission of Dietetic Registration to see if your state requires licensure for a nutritionist to practice.
You can start looking for jobs even before you graduate, but you'll have the most luck when you're at least exam eligible. Most clinical positions will require the RD or acquisition of that within a few months of hire. Like other jobs, there are plenty of schedules and specialties you can work in. Obviously full time or part time is most common, but you can also work PRN or as an independent contractor providing telehealth. You can work in community-focused public health, sports or school nutrition, private practice, in inpatient or outpatient clinical settings, focus more on product development and retail, management, pharmaceutical and medical device sales (think formulas, insulin pumps, feeding tubes, etc), do research, and more!
For compensation, Glassdoor and Facebook are great places to start to get an idea of what to expect for pay in your area as well as what area of the field you're interested in. The Academy has a salary calculator, but it can be skewed as it only takes in data from Academy members and of course you have to be a member to use it. You can also buy professional liability insurance regardless of your job; your employer will let you know if you need it.
If you decide to venture into nutrition counseling as an individual or under a company, you'll likely need that as well as likely needing to get credentialed to verify & bill insurance. Not gonna lie, this is NOT a fun process: CAQH, CPT & ICD10 codes, and more! I've already ventured into the insurance & telehealth world, but I have not yet done the deep-dive into an insurance-only based practice; for that, Amy Plano is an amazing reimbursement resource. Whether or not you decide to accept insurance, it would be beneficial to at minimum have a LinkedIn profile, as well as a professional social media profile(s) on your platforms of choice and a blog/portfolio website (if you don't already as a professional and/or business).
Besides all that, there are some credential guidelines to be aware of and some specialties to go along with this as some basic info. These credentials are for dietitians that have to meet the discipline and licensure requirements, continuing ed hours, and pass another big rigorous exam (which of course costs money to apply for and then take). For example, to be a diabetes ed specialist, you have to obtain minimum professional practice experience providing Diabetes Self Management Education; as well as obtain minimum continuing education hours (15 more education hours related only to diabetes); and apply and pay the application fee. Once you receive that, you need to maintain continuing education hours every 5 years to show that you're still learning about this ever-changing field. The recommended order of listed credentials for registered dietitians (RD) or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN)* is:
graduate academic degree
RD or RDN
specialty certifications with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (e.g. CSG, CSO, CSOWM, CSP, CSPCC, CSSD, CSR)
licensure designation
other certifications (e.g. CDCES, CNSC)
Fellow of the American Dietetic Association (FADA)
Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (FAND)
eg. Your Name, RD, LDN, CSSD, CDCES
eg. Your Name, MS, RD, CD, CNSC
The recommended order of listed credentials for registered dietitians (RD) or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) with the CDR advanced practitioner certification in clinical nutrition is: graduate academic degree, RD-AP**, or RDN-AP** specialty certifications with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (e.g. CSG, CSO, CSOWM, CSP, CSPCC, CSSD, CSR), licensure designation, other certifications (e.g. CDCES, CNSC), fellow of the American Dietetic Association (FADA).
What about ongoing maintenance? The CDR registration cycle is 5 years so you have to pay yearly or every 5 years, as well as keep a log of CPEUs, to keep the RD. If you let it lapse, you can get it back by retaking the exam. Yikes.
Continuing ed hours are pretty easy to get, and there are TONS of free opportunities and awesome ways to get them. Typically your job will email you with online webinars, conferences, symposiums, and trainings that are eligible. There are also lots of free webinars and classes online that you just have to sign up for, then attend and log the information with CDR. I keep the certificates just in case I get audited, but I've been told you technically only need to log it in your list.
Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions we didn't answer here! We're here for you on this amazing journey
Comments