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  • Hi everyone welcome back to my Channel!

  • Today we're going to be speaking

  • some things a dietitian can and can't do.

  • (MUSIC )

  • So hi everyone my name is Kim I am a

  • registered dietitian. If you are new here

  • to this channel and you like what you

  • see so far please go ahead and subscribe

  • hit that subscribe button. If you guys

  • have been watching me for any amount of time

  • you guys have an idea of what a

  • dietitian does. There are some

  • limitations in the field of nutrition

  • and dietetics. So let's first start off

  • with a positive note : What can a

  • dietitian do?

  • (MUSIC)

  • The first thing a dietitian can do is give you personalized,

  • individual advice. Some people think that

  • the advice dietitians give is just a

  • cookie cutter advice, like a

  • one-size-fits-all and that is the

  • furthest away from the truth. Dietitians

  • work with you individually to come up

  • with realistic, achievable, timely,

  • measurable, goals that suit your personal

  • life. So what may work for Tom may not

  • necessarily work for Sally. So they

  • individualize their plan of care for you.

  • The second thing a dietitian does is

  • they know how to manage chronic diseases.

  • So say for instance, you're someone with

  • diabetes or high blood pressure or high

  • cholesterol a dietitian is able to give

  • you nutritional advice that will help

  • manage those conditions because

  • definitely those conditions, as well as

  • other conditions which I did not mention

  • is affected by food. Third thing a

  • dietitian can help you with is weight

  • loss. Now, obviously we live in an

  • obesogenic society so dietitian can

  • formulate an eating plan for you, they can

  • definitely recommend an increased amount

  • of physical activity depending on your

  • condition that can help promote weight

  • loss. So those are all the things that a

  • dietitian can do, so let's take a look at

  • a few things that

  • dietitian cannot do.

  • (MUSIC)

  • The first thing a dietitian cannot do is to actually

  • diagnose a disease. Dietitians cannot

  • tell you "oh you have diabetes" or " you

  • have cancer". That is reserved to another

  • profession all together. So dietitians

  • first cannot diagnose the disease. The

  • second thing dietitians can't do is

  • actually write for you to receive a

  • prescription. Dietitians cannot write for

  • you to receive a prescription. You cannot

  • take that to a pharmacy and say 'well you

  • know my dietitian recommended that I get

  • this diabetes medication or this

  • cholesterol medication.' Dietitians cannot

  • do that. Again that is reserved to a

  • medical professional such as a

  • physician or a physician's assistant or

  • a nurse practitioner. Those professions

  • can do those things dietitians .Likewise

  • seeing that dietitians cannot write for

  • you to receive a prescription, they

  • cannot adjust medications here's a story

  • there was an associate of mine and she

  • was a dietitian she actually decided to

  • leave the profession and she wanted to

  • become a physician's assistant. There's

  • nothing wrong with being a physician's

  • assistant that's actually another video

  • for another time; but, the reason why she

  • decided to leave the field of dietetics

  • and become a physician's assistant is

  • simply because she said that there was a

  • lot of people coming to her that needed

  • their medication, specifically their

  • insulin to be adjusted and she couldn't

  • touch it being a dietitian it wasn't in

  • her license. Now as dietitians we do have

  • a license to protect. We can lose our

  • license just like any other profession.

  • So she decided you know what I'm going

  • to become a physician's assistant

  • because I want to be able to impact my

  • client in case I see that there

  • something going wrong, in case there's a

  • medication that needs to be adjusted. Now

  • what dietitians can do is to work with

  • the endocrinologist and work with the

  • medical professional, whether that's a

  • nurse practitioner, PA-C or physician and

  • make recommendations and it is at the

  • medical professionals discretion whether

  • they adhere or they choose not to adhere

  • to your recommendation because after all

  • it's only a recommendation. Some

  • dietitians what they have done to kind

  • of get a little more wiggle room, a

  • little more freedom in the field of

  • nutrition and dietetics is they've

  • sought order writing privileges. Now

  • order writing privileges do not mean you

  • know you can go around and you can write

  • medications for anything; NO!, it's only a

  • specific set of things. For instance,

  • instead of asking a physician to change

  • the diet if dietitian has ordering

  • privileges at their facility, because of

  • course there's state laws and there's

  • bylaws and there's a whole bunch of...

  • wouldn't say red tape more like yellow

  • tape that you need to to properly cross

  • in order to have order writing

  • privileges but, a dietitian can go ahead

  • and change the diet. Another thing that a

  • dietitian can do with order writing

  • privileges is recommend treatments for

  • something a little more invasive and

  • these things are tube feedings as well

  • as TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition) so let's first talk about tube

  • feedings. Tube feedings is a means of

  • artificial nutrition where a tube is

  • either inserted through your nose,

  • through your mouth, somewhere in your

  • stomach or in your intestine and you're

  • started on feedings. Dietitians can write

  • for tube feedings to be started. In my

  • hospital I do not have order writing

  • privileges I have dependent order

  • writing privileges which means I seek

  • permission from medical professional

  • before I start anything . So with the TPN as well dietitians can start TPN's

  • depending of course as I said earlier on

  • the discretion of their facility and

  • their state and how comfortable they are

  • was starting TPNs. So TPNs on the

  • other hand it's a little more invasive

  • but what if TPN is it's also another

  • form of artificial nutrition. So

  • basically you're infusing fluids which

  • are loaded with vitamins and amino acids

  • and sometimes lipids, if lipids are ordered

  • which are fats, and calories and dextrose

  • which is sugar to make sure that the

  • patient is adequately fed. Now TPNs, total

  • parenteral nutrition is used if the gut

  • doesn't work. Tube feedings are always the

  • first line of preferable feedings if the

  • individual for some reason cannot eat by

  • mouth. So I just wanted to share with you

  • just a few things what a dietitian can

  • and cannot do so this is not an

  • exhaustive list there's a lot more

  • things that dietitians do do and there's

  • a lot more things that a dietitian

  • cannot do. Well thank you guys for

  • watching as always remember to like and

  • subscribe and leave a comment in the

  • comment section below and for the

  • dietitians out there watching this video

  • go ahead and add on to this list, let's

  • start some discussions. Have a good day...

  • Bye.

  • (MUSIC)

Hi everyone welcome back to my Channel!

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