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Outpatient dietitian skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Tara Miltenberger,

Natalie Cooke PhD, RDN

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical outpatient dietitian skills. We ranked the top skills for outpatient dietitians based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 29.5% of outpatient dietitian resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an outpatient dietitian needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 outpatient dietitian skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how outpatient dietitians use patients:

Performed nutritional education, completed comprehensive assessments, calculated patient needs for nutrition support and determined patients at risk for malnutrition.
Monitored patients' nutrition status, laboratory values, diet tolerance, and motivated them to adhere to dietary/medications recommendations.

2. Medical Nutrition Therapy

Here's how outpatient dietitians use medical nutrition therapy:

Individualized evidence-based Medical Nutrition Therapy for inpatients and outpatients with various medical conditions.
Provided Medical Nutrition Therapy for complex nutritional diagnoses in an outpatient setting.

3. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how outpatient dietitians use patient care:

Participate in facility-wide and department Performance Improvement Program and on Performance Improvement teams to improve processes and patient care.
Collaborated directly with physicians during patient rounds in community clinics to implement individualized patient care plans.

4. Nutrition Services

Nutritionists and dieticians' nutrition services refer to dietary instructions, counseling, and recommendations offered to patients to improve their health.

Here's how outpatient dietitians use nutrition services:

Provided nutrition services to inpatients as well as outpatients on a full-time basis.
Marketed nutrition services to local physician's offices.

5. Home Health

Here's how outpatient dietitians use home health:

Provide nutritional assessment and educational materials to Home Health clients.
Provide computerized documentation of nutrition interventions including completion of discharge summary, interventions and plans for home health patients.

6. Healthcare Professionals

Here's how outpatient dietitians use healthcare professionals:

Reviewed patient plan of care with physicians, and other healthcare professionals.

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7. Diabetes Education

Here's how outpatient dietitians use diabetes education:

Provided diabetes education to community through individual consultations, and public speaking at local schools and hospital-affiliated events.
Provided outpatient/community nutrition and diabetes education over a maternity leave and on as needed basis.

8. Nutrition Assessments

Here's how outpatient dietitians use nutrition assessments:

Performed physical nutrition assessment in order to evaluate presence and degree of malnutrition and ordered oral nutritional supplements when indicated.
Provided brief nutrition assessments and nutrition based disease prevention information at community and corporate wellness events.

9. Nutrition Care Process

A nutrition care process is a systematic and standardized method that guides professional nutritionists, registered dietetic technicians, and dietitians for diagnosing, assessing, treating, monitoring, and providing quality nutritional care to patients. The nutrition care process consists of four different and interrelated phases: Nutritional Assessment, Nutritional Diagnosis, Nutritional Intervention, and Nutritional Monitoring/Evaluation.

Here's how outpatient dietitians use nutrition care process:

Created the electronic health records individual/group note templates utilizing the Nutrition Care Process to improve quality of life.
Documented the nutrition assessment using the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) in the medical record system.

10. RD

A registered dietitian (RD) work with people who are having trouble losing weight or maintaining a proper diet and weight for health related reasons. Each patient's dietary habits are unique and a registered dietitian will help craft a plan tailored to their needs.

Here's how outpatient dietitians use rd:

Provided RD mentorship and nutrition-focused PCOS lectures to professionals.
Initial RD in new dialysis unit, identified resources to learn specialty position Taught pts with games, competitions and individualized approach

11. Disease State

Here's how outpatient dietitians use disease state:

Encourage and support behavior change related to specific disease states and medical conditions.
Provide diet instructions appropriate for disease state or pregnancy.

12. Nutrition Support

Here's how outpatient dietitians use nutrition support:

Provision of nutrition support/nutrition clinical care plans in an acute care setting.
Served as a member of medical center's Nutrition Support Team.

13. Eating Disorders

Here's how outpatient dietitians use eating disorders:

Work and communicate with the multidisciplinary team on any policies and procedures on nutritional matters relating to eating disorders.
Provide extensive and personal counseling in various eating disorders, addictive behaviors and nutrition related health problems.

14. Obesity

Here's how outpatient dietitians use obesity:

Specialized in weight management, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and childhood obesity programs
Assessed and counseled outpatient clients referred by hospital physicians on diabetes, adult and pediatric obesity, GI disorders and oncology.

15. Allergies

Here's how outpatient dietitians use allergies:

Performed recipe analysis, utilized computer program for individualization of patient menus, preferences, allergies.
Obtain resident information on admission regarding food allergies and preferences.

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What skills help Outpatient Dietitians find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on outpatient dietitian resumes?

Tara Miltenberger

Dietetic Internship Director and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Cedar Crest College

A career in dietetics demands competence in critical thinking, exceptional communication skills, ethical integrity, and adaptability. I believe that employers are going to look for more technical skills moving forward. Dietitians must highlight proficiency in basic computer software systems (e.g., MS Office, file sharing, mainstream electronic medical record systems). Demonstrating technical skills tied to telemedicine systems, professional social media platforms, and creative software systems will stand out to hiring managers who seek innovative dietitians who are not just experts in nutrition but also want to propel our message to the public.

What soft skills should all outpatient dietitians possess?

Natalie Cooke PhD, RDN

Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs for Nutrition Science, North Carolina State University

In June 2020, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities released two reports, one quantitative and one qualitative, on gaps in employability skills (https://www.aplu.org/news-and-media/News/aplu-releases-two-reports-on-gaps-in-employability-skills-and-workforce-preparedness-among-college-graduates). As the Executive Summary (https://www.aplu.org/library/from-academia-to-the-workforce-executive-summary/file) reports, the 11 skills that were identified as "critical growth areas" include: (1) understanding role in the workplace and having realistic career expectations, (2) recognizing and dealing constructively with conflict, (3) accepting and applying critique and direction in the workplace, (4) listening effectively, (5) communicating accurately and concisely, (6) realizing the effect of decisions, (7) building professional relationships, (8) navigating change and ambiguity, (9) identifying and analyzing problems, (10) transferring knowledge from one situation to another, and (11) asking good questions.

Additionally, critical thinking is an essential skill for nutrition science professionals, including being able to critically evaluate scientific literature about a topic to inform decision-making and information shared with the public. Nutrition scientists want to make sure that they are sharing information with the public that is based on research. Teamwork is also an essential skill needed in any setting, but especially in healthcare settings, where work is often collaborative with many members of the healthcare team. Similarly, in a research setting, interdisciplinary work is highly valued. Empathy is also essential for healthcare providers.

What hard/technical skills are most important for outpatient dietitians?

Natalie Cooke PhD, RDN

Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs for Nutrition Science, North Carolina State University

Different fields in healthcare will have competencies that they expect their professionals to have mastered. For example, a working group from the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior created a list of Nutrition Educator Competencies for Promoting Healthy Individuals, Communities, and Food Systems (https://www.sneb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Competencies_Page_21.pdf). These competencies are organized into ten categories: (1) Basic Food and Nutrition Knowledge; (2) Nutrition Across the Lifecycle; (3) Food Science; (4) Physical Activity; (5) Food and Nutrition Policy; (6) Agricultural Production and Food Systems; (7) Behavior and Education Theory; (8) Nutrition Education Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation; (9) Written, Oral, and Social Media Communication; and (10) Nutrition Education Research Methods. A technical skill for a nutrition educator in the area of "Written, Oral, and Social Media Communication" is: "Engage and educate through simple, clear, and motivational language appropriate for diverse audiences." These technical or discipline-focused skills can be gained through engaging in internships and gaining work experience under the direction of nutrition educators and/or registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs).

One way to learn what hard/technical skills are required of jobs is to start looking at job descriptions years before planning to apply for a job. That way, a student can carefully select experiences to help develop those skills over time, making them a stronger applicant for the job they wish to apply for in the future.

What outpatient dietitian skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Dr. Jeremy Akers Ph.D.

Dietetics, Graduate Program Director, James Madison University

Since you will be required to have a master's degree to sit for the RD exam in 2024, I would suggest thinking about pursuing a graduate degree.

Do you want to know more?

List of outpatient dietitian skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an outpatient dietitian resume and required skills for an outpatient dietitian to have include:

Patients
Medical Nutrition Therapy
Patient Care
Nutrition Services
Home Health
Healthcare Professionals
Diabetes Education
Nutrition Assessments
Nutrition Care Process
RD
Disease State
Nutrition Support
Eating Disorders
Obesity

Allergies
Weight Management
Health Professionals
Nutrition Interventions
Nutrition Education Materials
Diabetes Management
Dietetic Interns
Health Fairs
Hypertension
Nutritional Risk
Outpatient Nutrition
GI
Weight Loss
Heart Disease

Nutrition Programs
Food Allergies
Therapeutic Diets
Community Events
Patient Education Materials
ICU
Diet Education
Disease Prevention
TPN
Medical History
Cardiovascular Disease
Nutrition Topics
Diet History
MDS

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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Outpatient Dietitian Skills

Updated January 8, 2025

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