Therapeutic dietitian vs dietitian

The differences between therapeutic dietitians and dietitians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a therapeutic dietitian and a dietitian. Additionally, a therapeutic dietitian has an average salary of $60,038, which is higher than the $58,480 average annual salary of a dietitian.

The top three skills for a therapeutic dietitian include nutritional risk, nutritional care and medical nutrition therapy. The most important skills for a dietitian are patients, medical nutrition therapy, and rehabilitation.

Therapeutic dietitian vs dietitian overview

	Therapeutic Dietitian	Dietitian
Yearly salary	$60,038	$58,480
Hourly rate	$28.86	$28.12
Growth rate	7%	7%
Number of jobs	6,213	6,164
Job satisfaction	-	2.5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 88%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	2	2

Therapeutic dietitian vs dietitian salary

Therapeutic dietitians and dietitians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Therapeutic Dietitian	Dietitian
Average salary	$60,038	$58,480
Salary range	Between $31,000 And $114,000	Between $43,000 And $78,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	University of California
Best paying industry	-	Health Care

Differences between therapeutic dietitian and dietitian education

There are a few differences between a therapeutic dietitian and a dietitian in terms of educational background:

	Therapeutic Dietitian	Dietitian
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 88%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common major	Dietetics	Dietetics
Most common college	University of Maryland - College Park	University of Maryland - College Park

Therapeutic dietitian vs dietitian demographics

Here are the differences between therapeutic dietitians' and dietitians' demographics:

	Therapeutic Dietitian	Dietitian
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 3.1% Female, 96.9%	Male, 11.7% Female, 88.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.7% Unknown, 3.5% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 7.0% White, 72.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 8.4% Unknown, 3.6% Hispanic or Latino, 10.9% Asian, 9.8% White, 66.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between therapeutic dietitian and dietitian duties and responsibilities

Therapeutic dietitian example responsibilities.

Manage the anemia status of patients by reviewing necessary lab data and initiating or adjusting medication doses.
Provide individual and group nutrition counseling, including interactive nutrition and culinary sessions to low-income multicultural communities.
Provide individualized nutrition consultations for sports nutrition, weight-loss, diabetes, hypertension and hormonal changes.

Dietitian example responsibilities.

Manage the anemia status of patients by reviewing necessary lab data and initiating or adjusting medication doses.
Prioritize initial/quarterly/consult assessments, interventions and progress monitoring for long-term care, rehabilitation and post acute patients.
Design and provide individualize nutrition counseling to promote healthy behavior modifications for a variety of home health care patients.
Counsele post-op patients to ensure dietary compliance, nutritional adequacy and formulation of weight management goals throughout their post-operative course.
Perform indirect calorimetry to measure resting metabolic rates (RMR).
Work as part of research team on a large-scale NIH clinical trial.

Therapeutic dietitian vs dietitian skills

Common therapeutic dietitian skills

Nutritional Risk, 47%
Nutritional Care, 30%
Medical Nutrition Therapy, 23%

Common dietitian skills

Patients, 39%
Medical Nutrition Therapy, 9%
Rehabilitation, 6%
Patient Education, 6%
Nutrition Services, 5%
Lab Results, 4%

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Therapeutic Dietitian
Therapeutic Dietitian vs Dietitian

Updated January 8, 2025

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