Geriatric nutritionist application requirements

At present, there is no unified professional qualification certificate for "Geriatric Nutritionist" in China. The exams we often talk about are generally divided into three categories. The core application requirements can be summarized as the three dimensions of "education + relevant background/work experience + training hours". It is not as exaggerated as the required medical background reported online, nor can you take the exam casually if you are over 18 years old.

I have been doing nutrition education for the elderly for five or six years, and the most common question I have encountered is "I am 50 this year. I am retired and like to study nutritional meals. Can I take the exam?" ”“I just graduated with a nursing major and want to enter a high-end nursing home. Which certificate should I take? ”, the application requirements corresponding to different needs are very different. Don't listen to the agency's nonsense that all certificates are the same.

The most hard-core one is definitely the Registered Dietitian (Geriatric Nutrition) issued by the Chinese Nutrition Society. This is the most recognized in the industry. If you want to work as a full-time nutritionist in the nutrition department of a tertiary hospital, a high-end nursing home, or want to open your own elderly nutrition consulting studio, you should take this exam first. The requirements are indeed higher: if you have a bachelor's degree in related majors such as nutrition, medicine, nursing, or food, it is enough to have more than one year of work experience related to geriatric nutrition, such as catering in a nursing home, doing geriatric nutrition education in the community, or working in a hospital nutrition department. ； If you have a bachelor's degree in a non-related major, you must have more than 3 years of relevant work experience, and you must also take 20 credits of special training courses on geriatric nutrition officially required by the society. If you have a college degree, you need 3 years of experience in related majors, and 5 years of experience in non-related majors. You must also provide proof of 100 hours of practical experience in elderly nutrition, such as how many elderly people have been nutritionally assessed, how many personalized meal orders have been issued, etc. Oh, by the way, if you are a medical practitioner with a practicing certificate, you can be exempted from taking part of the training credits by taking this exam, which is a small benefit for your peers.

Of course, most people who take this certificate actually want to find a catering job in a nursing home or community canteen, or want to receive a skills subsidy. There is no need to apply for such a difficult registration certificate. It is enough to take the public nutritionist (senior nutrition direction) vocational skill level certificate issued by the evaluation agency registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. This threshold is much more friendly: a technical secondary school degree or above is enough, or you have more than 2 years of work experience related to health, catering, and elderly care, or you have participated in an officially designated special training on geriatric nutrition of more than 120 hours, and you can sign up. Last month, I registered for Uncle Zhang from our community. He had worked as a chef in the canteen of the veteran cadres of his work unit for 8 years. He had a technical secondary school degree and had never received professional nutrition training. He found a designated training institution and took courses for more than half a month. He applied for the training certificate after receiving it. He completed the exam in March this year. Now that he has obtained the certificate, he works as a catering worker in a community day care center. He also receives an additional 800 yuan in skills subsidies every month, which is quite real.

Nowadays, there are many advertisements on the Internet saying that "you can take the geriatric nutritionist exam if you are over 18 years old, and you are guaranteed to be accredited." What they are actually referring to are the training certificates issued by various industry associations and training institutions. Does this count as a certificate? Well, there are always two opinions in the circle. Some people think that this kind of certificate has no value and is purely an IQ tax. Others think that if you just learn to adjust the diet for your parents and grandparents at home, and get a certificate to explain to yourself after studying, it is absolutely fine. After all, you can complete the study and pass the test for a few hundred yuan, which is very cost-effective. But one thing must be made clear in advance: if you want to use this certificate to find a job, receive national skills improvement subsidies, or enter public hospitals or formal nursing homes, almost no one will recognize you, so just don’t pay thousands of dollars in unjust money.

Two years ago, I met a little girl who just graduated and wanted to join the industry. The agency deceived her by saying that "you don't need work experience to apply as a registered dietitian." They gave her a fake certificate of employment in a nursing home. As a result, when she submitted the materials, she was randomly checked by the society and her qualifications for the exam were immediately cancelled. She will not be able to apply for the registered nutritionist series certificate for 5 years. This is a loss to her grandma's family. If you really want to take the registration exam, be sure not to falsify your work experience. The institute's random checks are really strict. They will call the workplace you filled in to verify, so you won't make mistakes.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is never a unified standard answer to the application requirements. The core depends on what you are using for the exam. If you want to take the professional route, get a registration certificate and earn experience and course hours. ； If you want to get a job and receive subsidies, you should take the skill level certificate. The threshold is not high and you can basically pass if you study hard. ； If it is just for your own family, you don’t even need to get certified. Finding a reliable senior nutrition course to learn about it is better than anything else. After all, certification is a means, and really helping the elderly improve their nutritional status is the goal.