Dietitian's play a crucial role in Canada's health care system, contributing to various aspects of public health and wellness. Dietitian's work on the front line in health care facilities such as hospitals and long-term care homes providing specialized nutritional assessments and interventions to patients with medical conditions. They also work in outpatient clinics, community health centre to provide nutrition education and support to individuals and families to promote healthy eating habits. Dietitian's also work in public health departments to implement community wide nutrition programs, initiatives, and policies to support improving the health of the population. Dietitians can also be found in the fields of education, research, and policy development to shape Canada's approach to nutrition and health.
As a registered dietitian, I am part of the College of Dietitian's of British Columbia. This professional organization is dedicated to public protection and ensures that dietitian's in British Columbia are up to date with competencies and providing safe nutrition care. There is yearly portfolio that must be submitted for the program called "Continuing Competencies". Dietitian's of Canada is another organization that is more designed for connecting dietitian's across the country and encourage networking through events and conferences.
When I think about the professional identity I want to have as a dietitian, it revolves around the recognition of dietitian's as the experts in nutrition, and a balance between recommendations that are rooted in science, and client centered care and respect for patient autonomy. My profession identity should display my values in evidence-based practice that is up to date, collaboration with other health care professional to provide the most comprehensive care possible, and cultural competency in the lens of respecting cultural and social factors on dietary habits. Another professional value I resonate with is advocacy. Nutrition advocacy can often be thought of in terms of public health and nutrition policies. However, I believe it can start smaller, such as a social media presence.
Social media often is often thought of as a platform for casual social interactions, such as Facebook and Instagram. However, the true definition of social media is that it is a communication tool designed to share information over the web (Nations, n.d.). For example, my ePortfolio where this blog post will be housed, contains a link for curated resources and digital content is a form of social media. This collection of curated resources is an ongoing process finding, selecting, editing, creating, and sharing digital content (Oddone, 2016).
I feel that as a Dietitian who is a regulated health profession in the field of nutrition, it is a responsibility to be active on social media as a form of advocacy for our profession. With increased social media use, nutrition information has become widely accessible. As the title nutritionist is not regulated, there are certainly social media accounts that are not evidence based and do not have the interest of public safety and trust at the forefront. Due to this, many social media users can become misguided regarding nutrition interventions. To me, it is important to maintain activity on social media as a voice for safe and evidence-based nutrition information as well as education regarding where to find credible nutrition information. Maintaining credibility for the profession while also engaging with the platform in a way that is relatable to a younger population is a fine balance. The key is to consider professional ethical standards, particularly maintaining evidenced based practice. This includes the responsibility to keep professional social media accounts up to date.
My hope is to continue to expand on how I exist online in a professional setting. My current professional social media presence is quite limited, mostly to LinkedIn. Through this course, I plan to contribute blog posts regularly and update my curated list of resources to share with others weekly to help achieve this goal. I feel I have already gained a wealth of knowledge in all the various social media platforms that exist such as Sway, Wix, and Zotero. I look forward to continuing to learn on this journey.
References:
College of Dietitians of British Columbia. (2021). CDBC Social Media Guidelines. https://collegeofdietitiansofbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Social_Media_Guidelines.pdf
Dietitians of Canada. (2023). Welcome. https://www.dietitians.ca/
Nations, D. (n.d.). Serious Question: What Exactly Is Social Media? Retrieved November 25, 2017, from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616\
Oddone, Kay. (2016, August 2). Digital Content Curation: More Important Than Ever! Retrieved September 22, 2023 from http://www.linkinglearning.com.au/digital-content-curation-more-important-than-ever/
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