Being a Registered Dietitian in the Midst of a Pandemic

Sara Rima, RD here! I’m a Cal Poly alumni from the 2019

graduating class and a clinical dietitian at Valley Children’s Hospital. I wanted to take a moment to let you into a clinical dietitian’s world during the COVID- 19 Pandemic. I’ve often heard dietitians say “There’s no such thing as a nutrition emergency.” This is typically a benefit of being a dietitian in the clinical setting. Our hours and responsibilities reflect that we're rarely needed in an emergent situation. I don’t mean this to say that our job isn’t important but our calculations aren’t going to clear a “code blue.”

Coming into the COVID-19 crisis, this notion was comforting to me. I took peace in the idea that I would be able to work from home because I didn’t place myself in the category of essential staff. When the list of essential departments came out I truthfully was shocked to see clinical nutrition as one of them. Being an essential staff meant that no matter the condition of COVID-19 I would not be able to work from home because my services were needed in the hospital. Fear, insecurity and confusion sunk in. To be very honest, I didn’t feel that my duties as a dietitian were going to save anyone’s life and I felt like I was a fraud for being on the essential staff list... until a fellow Cal Poly Alumni posted on her Instagram a sweet story thanking her fellow dietitians for being in the middle of the pandemic providing nutrition support for those who are on ventilators. The truth is, dietitians are not administering medicine, intubating patients, or stepping foot into COVID-19 rooms (at least in my facility). Dietitians are, however, calculating needs and determining enteral formulas for intubated patients and advocating for nutrition support to give our patients the energy they need to fight this virus.

As medical professionals, our first instinct in the midst of a crisis should be this incredible urge to lend a helping hand. Being a dietitian in the middle of this pandemic made me feel like I couldn’t do enough because I wasn’t a nurse, doctor or respiratory therapist. I felt like I needed to be a hands-on member of the medical team in order to do something great for my patients. I don’t share this information to make any RDs2Be feel like a lesser member of the medical team. I share it because these are real insecurities that RDs are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality for clinical dietitians during this virus is a feeling of fear as we wait for anticipated virus “peaks,” a disruption in our daily activities, and the insecurity that we aren’t doing enough. These are the problems that dietitians are facing during this war but the purpose behind this post is not to induce fear or pity but to show you the depth of the medical team and to answer the following question.

What role does a dietitian play in this pandemic?

I’ve already discussed our incredible duty to provide nutrition support for our patients. This isn’t our only opportunity to lend a helping hand.

1. Reduction of Masks

It is obvious that masks are scarce right now. The dietitians of my hospital have decided to call into all rooms that would require a mask to enter. This policy that we have implemented isn’t specific for COVID-19 patients, it’s for all isolation rooms. This way we spare masks for our doctors and nurses who don’t have the luxury of being able to call into patient rooms. We are doing our part by minimizing mask waste.

2. Offering Nutrition Advice

I am typically an advocate for limiting the amount of “free” information that dietitians share with the public. We have gone to school for a very long time and deserve to be compensated for our knowledge. However, during COVID-19, one of the most valuable skills we have is our nutrition knowledge. Dietitians are the world’s nutrition expert and during a crisis we have the ability to share helpful tips, recipes, exercises, and so much more with our social media followers to help them maintain a healthy lifestyle.

3. Being aware of our infection rate

Healthcare providers are at increased risk of catching this virus due to its incredible contagion. It is essential that dietitians follow shelter in place orders, remove their clothes and shower when arriving home from the hospital, sanitize their workspace, and be honest if symptoms present. If we become infected we put our patients, co-workers, family and community at risk.

These may seem like small gestures in the grand scheme of fighting this virus. The only way we are going to be victorious as a nation and as a world is when we realize that we ALL are essential members to the COVID-19 task force. Our decisions and our actions no longer only affect ourselves; they affect a home, hospital, and community.

Stay safe and please take this seriously. Your healthcare workers are depending on you.