What Is The Role Of A Dietician In A Hospital?

Role of Dietician

A dietician in a hospital is equally important as a doctor. A doctor is there to treat the patient’s disease whereas the role of a dietician is to recommend patient to take essential supplements so that his/her health can be recovered as soon as possible. 

In earlier days, the role of a dietician wasn’t much recognized but with the passage of time, people realized the importance of diet and need to hire a dietician to improve their health. 

If you are a woman who is looking for online dieticians in India then definitely contact us. 

Now, his role isn’t only limited to making a chart of a diet for the patients but also involves multiple roles of a dietician. 

These roles are as follows: –

1. Making Nutritional Assessments

Nutritional assessment refers to the systematic representation and interpretation of information about the health issues of a person. In this, we measure weight, height, blood pressure, muscle mass, bone density, waist circumference, heart rate, etc., to measure how much food you can consume while you are unwell. After gathering these data, one can easily determine what type of food should be given to a person. Everybody demands different nutrition according to the factors mentioned above. It is advisable to perform a nutritional assessment once a year for an individual’s health and lifestyle. It showers us with many benefits like: –

  1. It identifies possible nutritional deficiencies. 
  2. It keeps you away from malnutrition.
  3. It evaluates a person’s overall health and performance. 
  4. It provides an opportunity for dieticians to make a food chart for their patients.

Read Also – Role of Community Dietician

2. Providing Diet Plans to Patients

During their recovery time, it is crucial that they should be provided with a proper diet plan. Firstly, a dietician ascertains the disease of a patient, makes a nutritional assessment of needs for women, discusses it with a doctor and family members, and then makes a diet plan for the patient. It’s not a task that is done within a jiffy. Your doctor may advise you to take a proper diet but without a list and a chart, you might not be taking a sufficient diet. And this chart is prepared by a dietician after taking into consideration your health and disease/diseases.

3. Inspection of the diet of patients that are admitted to the hospital

Making a diet chart, consulting a doctor, and determining the nutritional assessment of a patient isn’t enough. This is a basic plan which is made for the patient but the point which is to be noted whether a patient is actually following the chart made by a dietician. And this isn’t for a single patient. These are for all the patients who consulted a dietician for their health. This is also to be performed by a dietician. Inspection of the diet is vital for the overall health of a patient. And for those who aren’t following a diet, dieticians make them understand the value and importance of following a diet so that their recovery shoots up and they can feel better.

4. Providing counseling to patients regarding diet

There are many patients who are quite choosy in eating a particular diet. It becomes very difficult for them to follow a diet made by a dietician. It is the need of an hour if we make all the patients understand the importance of following a diet. We need to eradicate their picky nature when it comes to health. We can follow these: –

  1. Making them understand the importance of diet.
  2. We should interlink their disease with a diet.
  3. We can tell them about each diet and how it triggers the particular system of the body.
  4. We can also talk to their near and dear ones or parents so that they can listen to them and follow.
  5. We can also make them aware of a healthy life.
  6. We should tell them that a healthy life keeps a person happy and satisfied and that is only possible if they consume the listed diet prepared by a dietician.

5. Recommending supplements

Along with making a dietary chart, a dietician also recommends you take supplements. They may include: –

Calcium and vitamin D help keep bones strong and decrease bone loss.

Folic acid supplements.

Omega-3 fatty acids which can be obtained from fish, meat, etc.

Vitamin C and vitamin E to keep your body hydrated and glowing. 

These supplements won’t only treat you but also keep you away from any upcoming diseases. Regardless of age, these are recommended for everyone. It promotes health in the long run, supports weight loss in pcos, fat burning, etc. 

6. Monitoring progress and making changes in diet plans

After you make a chart and make it implemented among the patients, it is now time to monitor the progress of all the patients regarding the diet they have been following. Without monitoring, and recommending to patients the diet is completely useless. Monitoring of diet will ensure that patients are getting recovered and staying healthy and fit.

The Bottom Line

There are still many hospitals in which dieticians aren’t available and patients consume whatever they find fit for their health. But in those hospitals that retain dieticians, it is seen that patients are recovering quite fast because of their eating habits recommended by their particular dieticians. So, the role of dieticians has been increasing in many countries and many hospitals started adopting this practice of keeping dieticians so that they can see a positive progress in their results.