Survey of Current Job Functions of Renal Dietitians

Objective

This cross-sectional study examined the current job functions of renal dietitians in relation to their demographic characteristics.

Setting and Participants

Seven hundred and forty-seven dietitians of the Renal Dietitians Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association and Council on Renal Nutrition of the National Kidney Foundation completed an electronic survey. Of 2566 surveys distributed, 29.1% (n=747) were returned and useable.

Main Outcome Measure

Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. We performed χ² tests to identify relationships between reported job functions and demographic characteristics. Fisher's exact tests were used when greater than 20% of cells had an expected frequency of less than five.

Results

Dietitians' job functions were related to demographic characteristics. Dietitians with greater than 10 years of renal-dietitian experience were more likely to evaluate urea kinetic modeling frequently (χ²=32.95, P < .0005), or evaluate dialysis adequacy (χ²=24.16, P < .0005), than those with less renal-dietetics experience. Dietitians who worked in an outpatient facility were more likely to prescribe a renal diet frequently (χ²=13.39, P < .0005), recommend renal vitamins (χ²=9.81, P=.002), or evaluate interdialytic weight gain, or IDWG (χ²=32.24, P < .0005), versus those who did not work in an outpatient facility.

Conclusions

This study documented the frequency of dietitians performing job functions related to renal dietetics. The results of this study document the variability in the role of renal dietitian, and suggest differing levels of practice within renal dietetics.