Job Satisfaction of Dietitians with Management Responsibilities

“Job Satisfaction of Dietitians with Management Responsibilities: An Exploratory Study Supporting ADA’s Research Priorities” is a research study that revolves around understanding dietitian’s attitudes and perceptions about different aspects of their job.  This research is critical in the identification of current problems so that resolution of these issues will lead to higher job satisfaction and, therefore, decrease the “desire” for dietitians to change jobs.  RD’s in managerial roles (who manage personnel or financial resources) were assessed in this research.  The results show this population has overall good job satisfaction and only 4.7% reported overall dissatisfaction. The top three sources of this overall good satisfaction were due to “nature of the work, supervision, and coworkers” and the top reason for low satisfaction was due to operative conditions.  Managers tend to make on the higher end of the salary scale compared to the national average RD salary, which may be a reason for the overall job satisfaction report.  The article points out that a large majority of RD’s work in hospital settings and may compare their salary to the other professions within the hospital, resulting in feelings of unsatisfactory wages. Another finding was that dietitians who regularly worked with more than 25 other RD’s report significantly higher overall job satisfaction compared to dietitians that work with less than three RD’s. 

This research is very important in the progression of increased job satisfaction and decreasing feelings or instances of leaving their position for another.  I was not surprised by the data that working with more dietitians increased overall job satisfaction compared to those who had less than three. This is most likely becuase they are working amongst coworkers they can rely on and related to as well as collaborate with.  I am glad that the authors pointed out the piece on satisfaction with wages of those working in a hospital.  Dietitians often have to compete with registered dietitians for competency and abilities and, therefore, it is easy to compare wages to this profession.   I am relieved to see that registered dietitians in managerial roles report overall good job satisfaction because I actually thought it wouldn’t be as positive outcomes due to the high work load, long hours, and the many responsibilities.

 -DG

Sauer, K.., Canter, D., Shanklin, C.  (2010). "Job Satisfaction of Dietitians with Management Responsibilities: An Exploratory Study Supporting ADA’s Research Priorities." J Acad Nutr Diet. 110(10), 1432-1440. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2010.08.024.