Dietitian
As a dietitian you will assess and educate a wide variety of patients about the best nutrition plan to improve their health.
What the job looks like
Salary expectation
starts at $39,000 up to $86,000
The good
- Seeing patients recover from illness or recover from surgery
- Supporting a person's recovery
- No one day is the same
- Great variation that any day or week can bring
- Helping people
The not so good
- Dealing with emotional cases at times
As a dietitian you are an expert in food and nutrition. You take the latest scientific findings and turn it into advice for patients to help manage health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, eating disorders, swalling difficulties and obesity.
You will see a whole range of patients as a dietitian, from athletes to the elderly across all age groups.
Dietitians use science to analyse the nutritional value of food. They then use mathematics to work out what an individual should be eating based on results of their blood, age, weight, temperature, stress levels and other health factors.
Based on all this information you will come up with eating plans for each patient. Sometimes your work will involve developing flyers or writing a media release so you will need good English skills to communicate your knowledge to other people and take accurate pateint notes.
If you have an interest in health and helping others, then a career as a dietitian could be for you.
Watching a patient go from a critical condition to walking out the door is the greatest feeling.
Pathways to this career
Subject suggestions for the HSC
Choosing your HSC subjects from this list could really help with your career. Think carefully about what you want to study after school as you might need to choose specific HSC subjects for that course and to count towards your ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank). An ATAR is your academic rank in relation to other HSC students and helps with University admission.
HSC subjects
Some subjects will count towards your ATAR, others will not. Check with your career advisor before making subject selections.
- English (Advanced or higher)
- Mathematics (2 unit or higher)
- Biology
- Chemistry
- PDHPE
- Community and Family Studies
What can I do after I have finished school?
University degrees
Studying one of these degrees can help with your career.
- Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics
Suggestions
Check out Dietitians' Association of Australia and Nutrition Australia for more information
- See if there is a nutritionist in your area that you can talk to or do work experience with
- Go to career expos and events like university Open Days for information about what you will study
