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Public health dietitian skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Jodie Seybold,

Samantha Coogan

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical public health dietitian skills. We ranked the top skills for public health dietitians based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 28.4% of public health dietitian resumes contained public health as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a public health dietitian needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 public health dietitian skills for your resume and career

1. Public Health

Here's how public health dietitians use public health:

Serve as an educator of healthy lifestyles and provide clients with access to an array of additional public health services.
Provide group and individual nutrition services and diet counseling to Public Health program participants and in the community at large.

2. Patients

Here's how public health dietitians use patients:

Provided comprehensive nutrition services at two community health centers and two specialty clinics for patients referred for medical nutrition therapy.
Provide ambulatory nutrition care for clinic patients*Document nutrition care process in the computerized medical record*Diabetes education coordinator*Complete annual diabetes audit

3. WIC Program

Here's how public health dietitians use wic program:

Directed and implemented nutrition services and supervised nutrition educators; assisted in internal auditing of the WIC Program.
Access applicants' eligibility for the WIC program; Conducted client centered counseling to individuals and families on the WIC program.

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 public health dietitians use nutrition services:

Developed procedures and protocols for outpatient nutrition services at San Francisco General Hospital.
Marketed nutrition services to area providers.

5. Medical Nutrition Therapy

Here's how public health dietitians use medical nutrition therapy:

Conducted Medical Nutrition Therapy through nutrition care process.
Credentialed provider, providing medical nutrition therapy (MNT) to airmen, dependents, and air force population.

6. Community Nutrition

Here's how public health dietitians use community nutrition:

Provide technical support to Community Nutrition Worker staff.
Provide community nutrition support for adult and youth programs to include teaching classes, evaluating menus and inspections.

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7. Nutritional Risk

Here's how public health dietitians use nutritional risk:

Complete nutritional risk assessments and patient centered nutrition education.
Interview and certify WIC Program applicants to determine eligibility based on defined nutritional risk criteria increasing monthly participant goal.

8. Health Promotion

Health promotion refers to programs aimed at engaging and empowering individuals to select healthy behaviors.

Here's how public health dietitians use health promotion:

Applied principles of community organization, health behavior and educational processes to plan effective health promotion and education programs.
Conducted health service research, and health promotion analysis after identifying and forming a partnership with a community organization.

9. Nutrition Assessments

Here's how public health dietitians use nutrition assessments:

Conducted nutrition assessments and develops/monitors nutritional care plans; reviewed records and updated participant information in the electronic medical records.
Monitored and trained professional/support staff in nutrition assessment, counseling, and certification of eligible clients.

10. Diabetes

Diabetes refers to a disease of uncontrolled sugar levels in the body.

Here's how public health dietitians use diabetes:

Initiated professional competency and skills required to become a Certified Diabetes Educator.
Provided diabetes education to community groups.

11. Nutrition Programs

Nutrition programs are food services organized by private or government organizations for the needy and less privileged public. Due to financial, health, and other unfortunate circumstances, many people cannot get the proper diet required to lead a healthy life. Nutrition programs aim to ease the situation for such people by providing food-related services.

Here's how public health dietitians use nutrition programs:

Designed and carried out health nutrition programs for women, infants and children particularly for malnourished children and pregnant women.
Function in a lead capacity in the absence of the Nutrition Program Manager.

12. Nutrition Education Materials

Here's how public health dietitians use nutrition education materials:

Developed new nutrition education materials.
Prepared nutrition education materials for the WIC clients and for community outreach activities.

13. Community Organizations

Community organizations refers to a form of social or volunteer work that focuses on bettering a community. This may be a community defined by geographic boundaries or by a person's racial or sexual identity. These organizations are often nonprofits that help groups of people affected by natural disasters or hate crimes.

Here's how public health dietitians use community organizations:

Provided Educational forums to local community organizations on varied health topics.
Maintained liaison with community organizations relating to nutrition education and/or information.

14. Home Health

Here's how public health dietitians use home health:

Completed food service inspections for the jail system and home health visits.
Counseled and provided medical nutrition therapy for home health-care company clients.

15. Clinic Operations

Here's how public health dietitians use clinic operations:

Performed administrative and supervisor duties for daily clinic operations.

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What skills help Public Health Dietitians find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on public health dietitian resumes?

Jodie Seybold

Instructor and Dietetic Internship, Director, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

For the new dietitian, organizations want to see the field's dedication, whether through work or volunteer experience, taking the initiative through leadership opportunities, and a strong knowledge base through their academics. With the new change coming in 2024, with the dietetics graduate needing to complete both supervised practice/experiential learning and a master's degree to sit for the national registration exam, it is essential for new dietitians entering the field, who have a master's degree already or are working on one, to put that on their resume.

What hard/technical skills are most important for public health dietitians?

Samantha Coogan

Director, Didactic Program in Nutrition & Dietetics / Lecturer, Undergraduate Coordinator, Nutrition Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Definitely presentation, teaching & counseling skills, and they can often be one and the same. Whether it's a group or one-on-one presentation, presenting is presenting, so even in a counseling session, we are presenting what we know and then teaching them how to implement those changes or goals or fill-in-the-blank.

What soft skills should all public health 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 public health dietitian skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Jennifer Ford

Assistant Professor and Program Director, Grand Valley State University

Volunteer and provide community service experiences in the clinical, community, and food service areas. Become involved in a professional organization, in-district, state, and national associations (ask what you can do virtually or in-person).

What type of skills will young public health dietitians need?

Jean Cerami

Principal Lecturer, Program Coordinator, Director, UNM Dietetic Internship, University of New Mexico

Computer skills, including Zoom and other virtual learning/teaching/counseling techniques, will need to be perfected in the coming years. Also, it will be necessary to know how to treat, counsel, and educate patients/clients virtually in clinical dietetics. App development will be a growing field in most areas of healthcare.

What technical skills for a public health dietitian stand out to employers?

Joyce O'Connor

Clinical Associate Professor, New York University

As mentioned above:
nutritional science implementation research skills
epidemiology and nutritional epidemiology Data analysis
program planning
Program evaluation
General skills our graduates demonstrate that stand out to employers
Critical thinking.
Collaborative teamwork
Professionalism
Ethics
Leadership.

Do you want to know more?

List of public health dietitian skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a public health dietitian resume and required skills for a public health dietitian to have include:

Public Health
Patients
WIC Program
Nutrition Services
Medical Nutrition Therapy
Community Nutrition
Nutritional Risk
Health Promotion
Nutrition Assessments
Diabetes
Nutrition Programs
Nutrition Education Materials
Community Organizations
Home Health

Clinic Operations
Technical Assistance
Health Fairs
Pregnant Women
Culinary
Federal Regulations
Food Packages
Weight Management
Community Outreach
Obesity
Therapeutic Diets
Federal Guidelines
Diet History
Community Programs

Food Safety
Hypertension
Eating Disorders
Weight Loss
Local Agencies
Laboratory Data
Food Selection
Group Nutrition Education
Allergies
Nutrition Education Classes
USDA
Wellness Programs
Nutrition Component

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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