Education/training | Making Connections | Personal Advancement | Self-employment | Career Options

Education/training

Dietetic technician program launches in Kitchener

One-of-a-kind program

A new, full-time dietetic technician program that begins next September at Kitchener's Conestoga College will be the only one of its kind in the country.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2006-01-11 ]

Send to a friend

Janice Schmeltzer, a professor at Conestoga and the co-ordinator of the program, says the two-year diploma course will take 35 students in September 2006, most of them directly from high school.

The reasons for the launch of the program are staff shortages and changing roles, Schmeltzer says. In the U.S., dietetics technicians have been a regulated profession for 30 years, and more than 70 colleges there offer programs similar to hers.

"We've had in hospitals a role called a dietetic technician for years," Schmeltzer says. "It's sort of evolved in two ways, one is homegrown through people who've been there for years and they've started out marking menus and have evolved into the position, or you get university graduates from food and nutrition programs that weren't lucky enough to get an internship so they become diet techs as well."

However, Schmeltzer says the situation has meant that those people who grew into their jobs can't go anywhere else and university grads get a couple of years practical experience then head off to a dietary internship, creating a revolving door. (Before anyone can practice as a registered dietician in Ontario they need a four-year degree and a one-year internship under their belts. There are only three dietician programs in the province, at the University of Western Ontario, Ryerson University and the University of Guelph.)

Dietetic technicians will work independently, Schmeltzer says, and manage their own caseloads for patients at "low nutrition risk." As an example, that could mean an elderly person in hospital with a fractured hip whom the diet techs ensure is eating well. The graduates of the new program will also work with a registered dietician for patients with more complex needs, Schmeltzer says.

Elma Hrapovich, director of Nutrition and Food Services for Halton Health Care, was an advisor for the new program at Conestoga. She says Dieticians of Canada, the profession's national association, looked at similar courses of study in the U.S., Britain and Australia about five years ago and began the formal process of getting the Dietetic Technician program established in 2002.

Hrapovich says she expects students in the new program to come from three streams: those with no experience in the occupation, others working as dietary aides and even university graduates with no practical training. Most of them will be women, given that the profession is largely if not exclusively female.

Irrespective of where the students come from, students will require high school credits in biology, chemistry, math and English, Schmeltzer says. "It's a very science-based program," she observes. As well as the in-class demands of the program, Schmeltzer says there is a four-month practicum students will have to complete in their second year. Tuition for the full-time program is about $1,800 a year.

A part-time dietetic technician program begins at Conestoga in January and will be broadly similar to the full time in-class course. Dieticians of Canada wanted a program delivered through continuing education, Schmeltzer says, so "homegrown" diet techs, as she describes those who learned on the job, can upgrade their qualifications and skills without having to quit their jobs.

Full time or part-time, employment prospects look good for Conestoga's graduate dietetic technicians. Hospitals, of course, and, increasingly, long-term care facilities are the places to find jobs, Schmeltzer says.

---