Beyond Hospitals: multiskilling For Dietitians

Abstract

Skills workers will need in the coming years include: increased technological competence, better teaching and training skills, the ability to work with a culturally diverse, older population, greater flexibility and networking expertise, the ability to use service as a competitive point of sale, the courage to plan for uncertainty within the workplace and possession of a variety of skills, often outside of one's main career area. Multiskilled practitioners are those individuals who can provide more than one function, often in more than one discipline. As healthcare operations in this country face vast changes, and as primary care shifts from acute to preventative, dietitians who were trained to be employed in hospitals will have to gain new skills or become obsolete. A matrix is presented detailing non-hospital based career options for dietitians and specific skills needed for each. For example, skills such as advanced writing and/or computer ability are needed to create nutrition software, or web pages, or to teach others these skills. Working with immune compromised patients requires knowledge of applied food safety. The matrix will be of particular interest to dietetic educators and dietitians exploring career options in non-hospital environments.