Landing the Best Long-Term Care Dietitian Jobs

If you are a clinical dietitian nutritionist looking for a new challenge, long-term care may be the perfect fit for you! Dietitians in long-term care facilities offer residents comprehensive and personalized nutritional assessments and nutrition care.

In this blog post, we will discuss what work in long-term care is like and how to find the best jobs as a long term care dietitian. We will also provide tips on how to stand out from the competition and land your dream job. So, if you are ready to start your career in long-term care, keep reading!

First off: what does Long-Term Care mean?

Long-term care

While the nursing home that you might be picturing is part of the work of long-term care, that isn't the full scope. Long-term care work in the United States might also include working in a residential facility, an assisted living facility, or even providing care to patients in their homes.

Long-term care facilities have a few things in common:

• They are for people who cannot take care of themselves independently
• The average length of stay is over 90 days
• There is 24/7 staff on site, including nursing
• There is a focus on rehabilitative and restorative therapies

A registered dietitian is a valuable member of the team at a long-term care facility. What are their responsibilities, exactly? Let’s cover those next.

Responsibilities

What does a dietitian actually do in long-term care? A lot!

A dietitian working in long-term care is responsible for the clinical nutrition and nutritional well-being of each of their residents with a wide range of medical conditions.

This medical nutrition therapy includes the following:

• Assessing the nutritional needs of each resident in the long-term care setting, based on the medical condition.
• Developing their nutrition care plan, including therapeutic diets, and their nutrition interventions, based on their nutrition assessments.
• Documenting everything according to standard processes.
• Monitoring each resident and updating their care plan as needed.
• Educating your patients, their families, and staff on all things nutrition.
• Provide dietitian services by being an active member of the care team at large and collaborating with them to optimize care for the residents.
• Ensuring that your facilities are in compliance with all national and local regulations.

Depending on the facility and its needs, your role may be full-time or part-time.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics provides Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Nutrition as a guide and can be found here.

When you are job searching, you might come across some common job responsibilities as a dietitian in long-term care.

Here's a real-life position summary for a dietitian that has completed requirements for dietetic registration, as an example:

• Assess and document the nutritional needs of each resident in accordance with facility policies and procedures
• Develop a plan of care that identifies the nutrition problems/needs of the resident and goals to be accomplished for each problem/need identified
• Represent the nutrition department with team members at interdisciplinary meetings, such as daily standup, wound and weight, QAPI, MDS and care plan meetings
• Experience with electronic charting and the Nutrition Care Process
• Works cooperatively with food service staff to ensure conformance to diet order and recommend diet changes as appropriate to improve resident’s nutritional status
• Understanding of the State and Federal Regulations associated with the industry
• Thorough knowledge of MDS 3.0 Section K and Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM)
• Demonstrates accountability for the proper use of patients’ protected health information

Now that we know what a long-term care dietitian does…how do you find the job?

Finding long-term care dietitian jobs

Where is the best place to find your amazing new job? Right here on NutritionJobs! You can filter results by Long-Term Care as well as by location and length of service. You can also consider a contract role (more on that later).

If you haven’t found the right fit here, you might want to do some sleuthing. For your next stop, we recommend checking out our long-term partners to see their current openings:

• Crandall Corporate Dietitians
• Healthcare Services Group (HCSG)
• Dietitians on Demand

You can also keep your eye on national job boards, including:

• The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND)
• Indeed
• Simply Hired

Networking is a powerful force to connect with the right people. A few places you can meet are:

• Your state dietetic association - many have their own job board
• The Healthy Aging Dietetic Practice Group (DPG)
• The Dietetics in Health Care Communities (DHCC)
• The Facebook group for The Pioneer Network (a national group dedicated to changing the culture of aging from people to systems).

Finding your dream job isn’t always easy. One measure that you can take to help your ideal job find you is to polish your LinkedIn profile. By clearly stating that you’re in the market for a long-term care position and the skills you bring to the table, you help your future employer to find – and hire – you. I show you exactly how to perfect your LinkedIn profile right here.

Another option to consider is starting your own business as an independent contractor and contracting with long-term care facilities.

Job search pro tip

When searching for jobs, be sure to include key words such as “long-term care dietitian” and “geriatric dietitian.” This will help you find dietitian positions that are a good fit for your skills and experience.

Once you have found a few job openings that interest you, it is time to start applying! When applying for jobs, be sure to highlight your experience working with older adults and your commitment to providing quality nutrition care.

You will also want to make sure you meet the minimum requirements for the job (including state and federal laws, as applicable.

Real-life tong term care dietitian job description requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in nutrition, dietetics, or related field
• Must be a Registered Dietitian with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) and provide annual verification
• Ability to keep sensitive information/data confidential under HIPAA guidelines
• State License as required by State
• Maintain current licensure as required by State law

Contractor or employee?

In long-term care, you may consider working as a contractor instead of being an employee.

Working as an employee has its perks, such as:

• A predictable schedule
• Benefits, like paid time off and health insurance
• Being a member of a team

On the other hand, working as a contractor gives you the freedom to:

• Set your own schedule, rates, and hours
• Have more flexibility in who you work with

If starting your own business is sounding like a great fit, you may consider joining the Nutrition Entrepreneurs DPG.

And remember, you’re always allowed to start with type of employment then transition to another later. You may choose to start as an employee to build skills and connections and later transition to a contractor role.

How much money does a dietitian make in long-term care?

What is a dietitian's salary in LTC? This depends on who you ask and the years of experience of the job seeker. It also depends on how many hours you are working, whether a few hours a month, part time, or full time.

According to the AND salary guide, long-term care dietitians report making $58,700 to $76,800 full time annually.

This is higher than the Salary.Com estimate which falls between $50,765 and $61,281.

Real-life salary examples

• “Before I became a full-time entrepreneur I was making 6 figures at the Department of Veteran Affairs,” says Katie Dodd, MS, RDN, CSG, LD, FAND, founder of The Geriatric Dietitian.
• A New Jersey based dietitian shared that they make $72,000 annually and had less than one year of experience when they started.
• Another dietitian disclosed that their salary was higher outside of clinical. “I make just over $100k as a food service director”.

No matter what, the salary offered may be higher or lower depending on the location and a variety of other elements, such as the applicant’s education, credentials, specialized talents, and years of experience. Your pay rate will also vary depending on if you’re an employee or a contractor.

No matter what: don’t forget to negotiate your salary and compensation package! Be sure to check out our Salary Negotiation Guide for all of our best tips and strategies.

Negotiating your salary or rate is one skill to master, but it isn’t the only one! Let’s talk about more skill building to prepare for your tole in LTC next.

Skill building

Maybe your rotation in LTC was a while ago…or not all that thorough to begin with? It can be hard to feel confident in your new role as an LTC dietitian when the wide range of skills needed is so varied!

If you are ready to brush up on your skills and be a successful candidate for job openings, we have a few high-quality resources for you to check out.

First stop? Bookmark the AND Standards of Practice for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in Long-Term Care Nutrition.

If you are new to long term care facilities, this handy guide helps you understand your role as a dietitian and what to expect on the job.

Next, The Healthy Aging DPG has a wide range of resources available, including podcasts, articles, and even study flashcards. Some products are only available to members or are offered at a discount for group members.

And if you’re ready to go all in, All Access Dietetics has a course called Real World Geriatric Nutrition*. This robust toolkit was created by Katie Dodd, MS, RD, CSG, LD, FAND. In this self-paced course, Katie shares her wisdom on how to be an effective geriatric dietitian through video trainings, worksheets, patient handouts, and more.

With the right prep, you’re going to be well equipped to find and land the perfect long-term care and help residents have the best possible experiences with their nutrition. You’ve got this!

Unique benefits of Long Term Care Dietitian jobs

It turns out that working in long term care, or in a skilled nursing facility, has many unique benefits, compared with other traditional dietitian jobs. Here are just a few:

• Training - Many companies have extensive training in long term care and geriatric nutrition. Crandall Corporate Dietitians has a training program during their onboarding process.
• Healthcare team - Can work with a team of other healthcare workers (I always loved learning from other disciplines).
• Patient population - Geriatric nutrition care is really wonderful. I loved hearing everyone's life story.
• Compensation benefits - Some companies that you are contracted with will offer attractive benefits, such as health benefits, flexible hours, tuition reimbursement, travel expenses, and more.
• Flexible schedule - If the job is part-time, you can often work when you have the time to work! This is especially important when you are taking care of family. Which leads to the next benefit ...
• Side hustle opportunity - If the job is part-time, or just a few hours every month, you can also work on your side hustle, such as blogging, freelance writing, digital course creation, online food demos, or taking care of family. I found it difficult to build out my nutrition business while working a full-time clinical job - and that was before I had a family to take of also.

Key takeaways

There are so many possibilities for registered dietitian jobs – this is a field with broad potential.

While working in long-term care, you have the potential to positively impact your patients' lives while working collaboratively with a team of healthcare professionals.

No matter where you are along your career journey, we are here to help you level up faster and with more confidence. Our NutritionJob Courses provide clear guidance and action steps to perfect your resume and LinkedIn profile and boost your interview skills. This means you’ll find job listings more quickly, feel confident during the interview and negotiate for a the robust compensation package you deserve.

About the Author

Stacey Dunn-Emke, MS, RDN, is the Founder Owner of NutritionJobs and an established dietetic career expert. She helps steer dietetic and nutrition professionals to a successful job search process with the top-ranked dietetic job board platform, NutritionJobs.com. Stacey is the author of The Dietetic Resume Guide and numerous dietetic career action-ables. She gives the tools to create a modern standout dietetic resume to land that job interview, help with job interview prep, and with creating Compelling LinkedIn profiles. Stacey has interviewed and hired many dietitians. Since running NutritionJobs in 2000, she has reviewed thousands of dietetic resumes. She works closely with dietetic hiring managers and recruiters to know the standout elements on a resume that land a job interview. Stacey frequently consults with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics at FNCE and co-created the webinar series, Dietetic Career Hack: The Complete Networking and Resume Guide and Dietetic Career Hack Part II: Interviewing Tips and Tricks. Her previous dietitian jobs have been in clinical, nutrition support, and research.