Featured Intern: Life as Dietetic Intern During Health Care Reform

With the new healthcare reform bill being passed, preventative care will become even more vital for the future. If insurance companies must accept all people with pre-existing disease states, then a person’s well being becomes even more crucial. In the future, I can see how wellness will likely become the nation’s top priority in regards to healthcare. Everyone knows the saying, “you are what you eat”, but this saying should turn into the dogma of the future. The nation will begin to focus on nutrition as prevention. And what professionals are the experts of nutrition? Dietitians or soon-to-be dietitians are in an excellent field.

Here is a little scenario for those of you who are still lost on this whole concept: many people are overweight and going to the doctor for their diabetes, hypertension, etc. Insurance companies don’t want to go broke paying for the nation’s health crisis every time someone goes to the doctor or hospital. Which group of professionals does not get reimbursed for seeing patients? That would be dietitians of course! So, insurance companies begin wellness incentives. The insurance companies would rather give some of their money to the dietitian in exchange for preventing their insured clients from going to the doctor’s office and/or hospitals. Get the picture? Dietitians now equal high value to everyone in the nation.

These are my hopes that the demand for and salary of a dietitian will increase, and we will begin to see dietitians taking on new and varied roles across the nation. We are already seeing dietitians working for Walgreens and other similar drugstores performing health education and health screenings.  Healthy food will be prepared at a variety of venues, maybe even ball parks one day. I can just imagine the jobs becoming available in the next few years. At least this is all what I hope for, but, hey, you never know!