Clinical Dietetic Unit

Dietitian 
Dietitians work with the people to help them improve their through nutrition. Dietitians plan, communicate, implement and evaluate effective nutritional management strategies based on current scientific evidence.

If you are interested in science, people and their food, and enjoy variety, then dietetics is the career for you.

To Qualify:

3 ‘a’: level Science Subjects including Chemistry & Biology (Average requirements: B, C, C)

Apply to a University which offers BSc degree in Nutrition & Dietetics* (4 years)

Available only in Australia: Monash & Flinders University Queensland University of Technology University of Newcastle

*BSc degrees in Nutrition and Dietetics is also available in UK. However, the clinical placement needed to qualify as a dietitian is not offered to foreign students. If in doubt, please check with Clinical Dietetic Unit, RIPAS Hospital.

Dietetic students study a variety of subjects, ranging from food and nutrition sciences, food services system management, business, economics, computer science, culinary arts, sociology and communication to science courses  such as biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, anatomy and chemistry.

Career Opportunities:

• Hospitals or Community settings (health centre, maternal and child care clinics)
• Research areas in food and pharmaceutical companies, universities and hospitals.
• Universities and medical centres, teaching, physicians, nurses, dietetics students and others the sophisticated science of food and nutrition.
• Food and nutrition-related businesses and industries, working in communications, consumer affairs, public relation, marketing or product development.
• Food and nutrition-related businesses and industries, working in communications, consumer affairs, public relation, marketing or product development.
• Private practice, working under contract with health care or food companies, or in their own business.
• Sports nutrition and coporate wellness programs, educating clients about the connection between food, fitness, and health.
  
  

Job Responsibilities:

• Dietary assessments and diet counseling for therapeutic diets such as those for weight reduction, lipid lowering, diabetes and renal diseases, for both in and outpatients.
•  Nutrition support services including tube feeling, nutritional supplements and modified texture diets.
• Supervision and monitoring of provision of therapeutic diets to ensure quality dietary care.
• Advice on healthy eating for disease prevention and health promotion to individuals and groups when requested.
• Involved in health promotion programmes such as health fairs, exhibitions and the media as well as production of educational materials.
• Lectures of medical staff to enhance and update their knowledge in nutrition when requested.
  
  

To Work In:
In Brunei, dietitians work in Hospital Community setting (health centres, maternal and child clinics), educating patients about nutrition and administering medical nutritional therapy as part of the health care team.  Their patients include those who have diabetes, weight problems, diseases of the heart, kidney and liver, bowel disorders and those requiring intensive care. They may also amnage the food services operations in these settings, as well as in schools and correctional facilities.