If you love food and healthy eating, becoming a dietician might be a good career path for you. Dieticians help people figure out what foods to eat and what to avoid to stay healthy and manage diseases.
If you want to learn how to become a dietician, your first step will be to study nutrition and dietetics at a post-secondary institution. However, there are a couple of other steps you’ll need to know about as well.
Here’s what else you need to be aware of if you’re looking to figure out how to become a dietician.
What Do Dieticians Do?
To help you figure out if becoming a dietician is the right career choice for you, it pays to know a little bit more about what dieticians actually do. Dieticians mostly focus on providing nutritional information to patients.
Their goal is to help patients with things like diets, supplementation, and even dietary interventions for specific diseases or medical concerns. In general, they use evidence and research to provide patients with informed advice.
How Much Do Dieticians Earn
While most dieticians choose their career path for altruistic reasons, it’s still nice to know that you’ll earn a pretty penny from becoming a dietician.
On average, dieticians make about $68,000 a year. However, this number can increase quite a bit depending on the experience and expertise of a dietician. Additionally, continuing education can also help raise that number, netting dieticians nearly $80,000 a year.
How to Become a Dietician
Now that you know what a dietician does and how much they make, let’s go over how to become a dietician. These are the steps you’ll need to take if you’re looking to pursue this career path.
Step One: Get Your Bachelor’s Degree
The first step to becoming a dietician is to get your bachelor’s degree. The program you choose will need to be ACEND accredited, which is the governing body for dieticians. However, just note that after 2024, you’ll need to get a Master’s Degree as well in order to become a dietician.
Step Two: Complete a Dietetic Internship
Once you’ve completed your degree program, you’re still not ready to start working as a dietician. You’ll first need to complete a dietetic internship.
Many degree programs have connections with hospitals and local medical centers that allow you to complete your internship during or after your course of study. However, you may also need to look for these internship opportunities yourself.
Internships can be as short as 8 months or as long as 24 months. So, make sure to clearly communicate what the expectations are from the beginning so that you know how long you’ll be in training!
Step Three: Take and Pass the CDR Exam
Once you’ve completed your internship, you’ll need to sit for the CDR (Commission on Dietetic Registration) Exam. This exam is what will allow you to become a registered dietician so that you can start practicing.
The CDR exam consists of:
- 14% foodservice systems
- 21% management of food services and nutrition programs
- 25% principles of dietetics
- 40% nutrition care
There are hundreds of testing centers around the US where you can take the exam, so you can choose to sit for it somewhere that’s convenient for you.
Step Four: Get Your State License
Once you pass the CDR Exam, the last step is to get your state license. Not all states require you to have a state license, but those that do will need you to register with the local government and meet any additional requirements.
With your state license in hand, you’re ready to start practicing as a dietician!
Launch a Career as a Registered Dietician
Becoming a registered dietician can be a great way to help people on the path to better health. Not only will you provide nutritional recommendations, but you can also help them learn how to better manage their health and handle disease.
Now that you know how to become a registered dietician, you’re ready to start on the road towards building a healthier community through nutrition.