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Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

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The current professional issues summarized in the article Opening Sessions Remarks highlights the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) concerns on the minimal availability of internships available for the participation and education of future RDNs. A second concern is the lack of ethic diversity in the RDN profession, in order to understand the cultural background of the patients the RDN profession. Diversity must be a factor to fully expose graduating RDN’s to individuals from other races, religions and cultures to understand their dietary requirements. According to eatrightpro.org, African-Americans make up three percent of the registered dietitians in the United States of America; four percent are Hispanic and five percent Asians. …show more content…

The Registered Dietitian Nutritionist needs to be able to have the pulse and problems affecting the previously mentioned social groups in order to intervene and improve the care provided by health care professionals in charge of these vulnerable communities. Hospitals and social services need to include the RDN in the medical decision making to affect the nutritional needs of the patient. “ An integrated approach is critical with the support from social services, mental health professionals and medical care whenever appropriate” (eatrightpro.org). Healthy eating is paramount and required for the healing of an injured or sick individual. RDN’s must be diligent in meeting the caloric and nutrient rich diets of acutely ill or trauma patients in order to forecast and replenish the nutritious needs of these in these vulnerable patients. It is imperative factor to provide essential nutrition during these critical phases in order to prevent malnutrition to facilitate healing and health restoration. According to eatrightpro.org, malnutrition affects an estimated 30% to 50% of adult hospitalized patients in the United States. A very small percentage of patients actually leave the hospital with a malnutrition diagnosis. The more we learn about food and its nutritious value in medicine continues to evolve and we must keep the dialogue open and honest among nutritionist and health care providers to affect the prognosis of the injured or

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