Dietitian job description
292 verified openings in Allied Health & Therapy
Whether you can call yourself a dietitian depends on where you practice: many states license the work, others protect the title through registration or certification, and a few regulate nothing at all. The credential employers look for is the Registered Dietitian or Registered Dietitian Nutritionist designation, with the Certified Nutrition Specialist accepted for licensure in many states. BLS reports dietitians and nutritionists on a single line, 86,300 practitioners with a May 2025 median of $76,400 and a decile range of $49,090 to $103,720.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
Dietitians assess nutritional needs and diet restrictions against a patient's current care plan, read laboratory results into the recommendation, and write dietary care plans they then monitor and document. Counseling is the visible half: explaining to someone with diabetes or heart disease how food fits into managing it, and building plans that respect cultural, ethnic, and religious preferences and budget. They consult with physicians and other clinicians on restrictions, record food and health history including allergies and medication factors, and develop recipes and menus for needs such as low glycemic, low histamine, and gluten or allergen free diets. Hospitals account for 27 percent of the jobs, government 11 percent, residential and nursing care facilities 9 percent, and another 9 percent are self-employed. Some also run food service departments.
Common Skills and Technologies
The skill profile is flat at the top, with speaking, active listening, reading comprehension, critical thinking, social perceptiveness, and judgment all level with one another, which suits work that is half analysis and half persuasion. The software is ordinary and heavily used: Microsoft Excel and Office are what postings name, with nutrient analysis under O*NET's analytical and scientific software heading and the employer's own medical records system for charting.
Education, Training, and Career Path
Entry takes a bachelor's or master's degree plus supervised practice through an internship, and the reported credentials show how much training happens after the first degree: 53 percent hold a post-baccalaureate certificate, 33 percent a master's, 10 percent a bachelor's, and the last 3 percent an associate degree. Specialty certifications layer on afterward in diabetes education, oncology nutrition, and sports dietetics, and clinical, renal, and outpatient dietitian show up as distinct posts. Evening and weekend appointments follow clients' availability. The Handbook's projection is 8 percent growth and about 5,700 openings annually.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 29-1031.00 Dietitians and Nutritionists, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-1031.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 29-1031, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291031.htm. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/dietitians-and-nutritionists.htm.