Registered Dietitian

Under indirect supervision, plans, develops, and provides diet interventions, medical nutrition therapy and preventive counseling to individuals and groups in all areas of primary and specialty patient care. Collaborates and consults with other health professionals, integrating dietitian services with regional programs and departments that provide care to identified populations that can benefit from diet interventions. Makes members/patients and their needs a primary focus of ones actions; develops and sustains productive member/patient relationships. Actively seeks information to understand member/patient circumstances, problems, expectations, and needs. Builds rapport and cooperative relationship with members/patients. Considers how actions or plans will affect members; responds quickly to meet member/patient needs and resolves problems.

• This position, knows and complies with all Kaiser Permanente quality, safety, and emergency policies and procedures. Demonstrates quality and effectiveness in work habits and clinical practice in every interaction with patients, colleagues, providers, and leadership. Ensures patient safety in the preparation and provisioning of care related to but not limited to medications, procedures, infection prevention, fall prevention, including consistent use of two patient identifiers and procedural time outs. Reports safety hazards, accidents and incidents, and unsafe working conditions promptly.


• Plans and provides diet interventions, Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) for patients/families referred for nutrition counseling: Assesses nutritional needs, eating habits, health status, and stage of change by reviewing the medical record including relevant lab data, interviewing the patient/family and observing the patient. Provides information for appropriate diet modification and individualized diet intervention relevant to the patients condition and assessment. Incorporates preventive counseling into all patient encounters. Assists patient to effectively integrate diet modifications into lifestyle. Evaluates comprehension of diet instruction and motivation to adhere to diet therapy.


• Follows up with patients/families to evaluate progress and adherence to diet therapy as appropriate or as indicated by guidelines for MNT. Modifies diet plan as needed to ensure its effectiveness and provides supplemental diet counseling by telephone, mail or in person as indicated.


• Provides diet teaching in-group settings to populations. Participates in planning, implementing and evaluating group programs where diet teaching is provided and coordinates with other disciplines as indicated.


• Documents all patient encounters, diet recommendations, patient goals and response to diet intervention in the computerized medical record. Completes accurate ICD9 coding information on all encounters.


• Applies motivational interviewing techniques and stage of change of model to all patient related communications and materials.


• Speaks to groups for Practicing Prevention and Speakers Bureau, Provides training for professional groups and makes presentations to professionals and departments as needed. Teaches other professionals about diet management with selected patient populations. Supports appropriate diet teaching by other health professionals following defined teaching outlines.


• Serves as a resource or liaison to regional programs and departments, participating as a team member in multi-disciplinary program design, implementations, and ongoing service delivery. Collaborates and consults with other health professionals to provide Dietitian support to patients and professionals for nutrition related needs of selected patient populations.


• Plans, develops, implements, and participates in population based strategies to provide Dietitian services to members at risk for disease or complications related to chronic illness. Collaborates with team members as appropriate.


• Develops, writes, and reviews written nutrition related patient materials and participates in making these available for other providers and staff.


• Plans and implements QA studies related to Dietitian services to monitor quality and guide improvements in service delivery. Collaborates with other team members to plan and implement outcome measurements to track the effectiveness of diet interventions and Dietitian services.


• Communicates to other departments and professionals in the organization on nutrition related topics. Develops and writes guidelines for Dietitian practice. Reviews relevant literature and research studies as evidence for Dietitian practice.


• Continually updates professional knowledge of nutrition and diet therapy to maintain a high standard of professional.