Dietitian

1What you'd actually do

• Seeing patients on hospital wards - reading medical notes and blood results, weighing or estimating body composition, calculating energy and protein needs, and writing a feeding plan in the notes for nurses and doctors to follow
• Running outpatient clinics with booked appointments - commonly diabetes, gastroenterology (including IBS and coeliac disease), weight management, allergy or renal clinics - where a lot of the hour is spent working out what someone actually eats and what they're willing to change
• Prescribing and reviewing artificial nutrition: enteral feeds (liquid feed given through a tube into the stomach or gut) and, in some posts, parenteral nutrition (nutrition given intravenously), including monitoring for refeeding syndrome
• Attending multidisciplinary team meetings and ward rounds, arguing the nutrition case alongside consultants, nurses, speech and language therapists and pharmacists
• Writing clinic letters, updating electronic patient records, and handing over to community teams or care homes when someone is discharged
• Teaching - running short training sessions for nursing staff, care home workers, student dietitians or patient groups
• Audit and service work: checking whether a ward is screening patients for malnutrition properly, updating a local guideline, or reviewing which supplement drinks are on the formulary

2How graduates get in

• The standard route: an HCPC-approved BSc in Dietetics (usually three or four years, sometimes titled Nutrition and Dietetics or Human Nutrition and Dietetics), which includes around a year of supervised placement in NHS services spread across the course. This is by far the most common way in.
• For graduates in a related science - typically biochemistry, human nutrition, physiology, biomedical science, food science - an approved postgraduate diploma or MSc in Dietetics, usually around two years. Entry is competitive and course providers are specific about which modules you must already have passed, especially biochemistry and human physiology.
• Degree apprenticeship in dietetics, where an NHS trust employs you and pays for the university study. These exist but numbers are small and they're advertised as jobs rather than through UCAS, so you apply to the trust.
• Working first as a dietetic assistant, assistant practitioner or healthcare assistant and then applying for a degree or apprenticeship route. Common and genuinely useful - it also gives you the care experience courses look for.
• Not a route: a general nutrition degree alone. It does not let you register with the HCPC or call yourself a dietitian, however good the course is. If you already have one, the postgraduate conversion is the way across, subject to module requirements.

3What employers ask for

• Registration with the HCPC is non-negotiable for practising as a dietitian - you must complete an approved course to get it, and NHS job adverts require it (some will accept 'HCPC registration pending' for new graduates awaiting their certificate).
• For BSc entry: typically A-levels or equivalent including chemistry or biology - many courses specifically require chemistry, and some require both. Grade requirements vary a lot between universities, so check individual courses rather than assuming.
• For postgraduate conversion: usually at least a 2:1 in a relevant science degree (some accept a 2:2 with a relevant master's or strong biochemistry content), plus evidence you've covered human physiology and biochemistry to a specified level.
• Relevant experience before applying - care home, hospital volunteering, healthcare assistant work, or shadowing a dietitian. Most courses expect you to show you understand what the job actually is; some ask for a specific amount of contact, others just want it discussed convincingly at interview.
• An enhanced DBS check (criminal record check) and occupational health clearance before placements and before starting NHS work.
• Once qualified, you must keep a continuing professional development record - the HCPC audits a sample of registrants at each renewal. Many dietitians also join the British Dietetic Association, the professional body and trade union, though membership is voluntary.

4Skills that matter