What does a nutrition assistant do?
A Nutrition Assistant makes sure that patients in a healthcare unit are fed according to their dietary needs. They assist in kitchen prep and cooking food.
Nutrition assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real nutrition assistant resumes:
- Coordinate all walk-through visible inspections to achieve overall cleanliness and order within each facility.
- Initiate customer relations and assist patients with their dietary menu selections and restrictions.
- Input children diet and cost via POS system.
- Inform other DTR members and students of career opportunities and CEU events.
- Attend conferences and trainings as required, maintain require DTR CEU's and portfolio.
- Comply with HACCP guidelines and ensures proper washing and sanitizing of work areas and equipment.
- Learned how individuals can cope with diabetes and proper methods of eating to combat this disease.
- Maintain and uphold standards set forth by ServSafe practices to ensure proper safety and regulations within the company and state guidelines.
- Follow strict sanitary and cleanliness guidelines.
- Work in patient rehabilitation center to offset tuition costs
- Develop schedules and maintain sanitation compliance in culinary department.
- Participate in a practicum involving diabetes education classes teach by register dietitians.
- Monitor and measure daily food consumption by patients and report observations to dietary supervisor.
- Ensure patient food allergies and medications with nutrient-interactions are up to date in hospital electronic medical record.
- Interview and/or review medical history to determine nutritional needs, including obtaining food preferences and documenting food allergies.
Nutrition assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Nutrition Assistants are proficient in Patients, Kitchen Equipment, and Food Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Dexterity, Listening skills, and Physical stamina.
We break down the percentage of Nutrition Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 20%
Initiated customer relations and assist patients with their dietary menu selections and restrictions.
- Kitchen Equipment, 10%
Cleaned and sanitized kitchen equipment and utensils.
- Food Service, 8%
Supervised approximately 15 food service staff across eight industrial kitchens, ensuring workers' adherence to sanitation guidelines.
- Compassion, 7%
Ensured patients felt comfortable asking questions about there diet restrictions by being accommodating and speaking to them with respect and compassion.
- Food Intake, 5%
Organize a diet plan for the residents of the facility and monitor their food intake on a daily basis
- Work Ethic, 4%
Participated in producing a culture with a strong work ethic on my shift.
Most nutrition assistants use their skills in "patients," "kitchen equipment," and "food service" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential nutrition assistant responsibilities here:
The three companies that hire the most nutrition assistants are:
- Swedish Hospital24 nutrition assistants jobs
- University of Rochester17 nutrition assistants jobs
- Henry Clay High School13 nutrition assistants jobs
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Compare different nutrition assistants
Nutrition assistant vs. Diet technician
A Diet Technician identifies patients with nutritional risk using scoring guidelines and initiates referrals for dietetic assessment. They oversee food production or service and assist dietitians or nutritionists in food service supervision and planning.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a nutrition assistant are more likely to require skills like "kitchen equipment," "compassion," "food intake," and "work ethic." On the other hand, a job as a diet technician requires skills like "culinary," "home health," "phone calls," and "diet tech." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, diet technicians reach similar levels of education than nutrition assistants. Diet technicians are 2.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Nutrition assistant vs. Clinical dietetic technician
A dietary aide is responsible for assisting food preparations and ensuring that the meals adhere to an individual's specific diet plans. Dietary aides must strictly follow sanitation standards and hygiene procedures to guarantee the safety and quality of the service. They also help in facilitating kitchen maintenance, keeping every area clean and organized. Dietary aides must also have comprehensive knowledge of nutritional guidelines to provide information and share suggestions as necessary to improve the service and preparations.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, nutrition assistant responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "kitchen equipment," "compassion," "work ethic," and "patient care." Meanwhile, a clinical dietetic technician has duties that require skills in areas such as "medical nutrition," "clinical nutrition," "nutrition assessments," and "acute care." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Clinical dietetic technicians tend to reach similar levels of education than nutrition assistants. In fact, they're 2.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Nutrition assistant vs. Dietetic technician, registered
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a nutrition assistant is likely to be skilled in "kitchen equipment," "food service," "compassion," and "food intake," while a typical dietetic technician, registered is skilled in "patient education," "mds," "medical nutrition therapy," and "diet education."
Dietetic technicians, registered typically earn similar educational levels compared to nutrition assistants. Specifically, they're 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Nutrition assistant vs. Dietary aide
Types of nutrition assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
