Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day is celebrated on the second Wednesday in March each year. This year’s celebration falls on March 10.
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day increases awareness of the registered dietitian (RD) as an indispensable provider of nutrition services and recognizes their commitment to helping people enjoy healthy lives.
Registered dietitians work in a variety of settings – from critical care and community health to corporate wellness and research. There are 28 dietitians at UofL Health, both inpatient and outpatient, whose responsibilities include nutrition care of oncology, behavioral health, nutrition support, diabetes, bariatric, cardiac, gestational, neonatal intensive care, pediatric, rehabilitation, burns and trauma, transplant and many more patient populations. Our dietitians have advanced degrees and certifications, are invited to present at national and regional forums, are published authors and place feeding tubes. They play a vital, respected and important role on the interdisciplinary team.
Ever wonder what our 28 RDs do at our different facilities? Read on to learn more about them!
Brown Cancer Center
The dietitians at Brown Cancer Center, Abby Cecil, RD, CSO, LD and Samantha Reed, RD, LD, are an integral part of the multidisciplinary team at the Brown Cancer Center. The dietitians work closely with patients during all stages of their cancer treatment, including prior to or following surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. They help patients get through treatment by providing individualized nutritional counseling to help overcome side effects of their treatments and diagnosis which impact nutritional intake. Abby and Samantha also help transition patients back to a healthy diet following treatments. In addition to daily involvement in clinics, the dietitians are important members of the SOAR On Health and Wellness Committee, participate in community outreach events and are involved in research initiatives.
Frazier Rehabilitation Institute
At Frazier Rehab, the dietitians are highly involved with the multidisciplinary team. They provide evidence-based nutrition education in individual and class settings, tube feed management and promotion of proper nutrition as it relates to therapy. They believe it is their role to make sure patients are properly supported nutritionally so that they have the energy to participate in therapy since food is fuel. The dietitians work on diagnosis-specific task forces such as pediatric, acquired brain injury and spinal cord injury, and have recently started working with the Huntington’s Disease clinic to help nutritionally optimize these patients for improved outcomes and quality of life. They love working on the team at Frazier Rehab!
Jewish Hospital
Jewish Hospital dietitians take pride in providing the best patient care. They are an integral member of interdisciplinary rounds with the ICU teams as well as the Trager Transplant Center. The RDs have recently brought post-pyloric tube placement to the bedside using real-time imaging. The team is always looking for the most up-to-date research to best serve our patients’ needs.
Mary & Elizabeth Hospital
Mary & Elizabeth Hospital dietitians are an integral part of taking care of the well-being of the whole person- body, mind and spirit. They take part in the interdisciplinary rounds with the ICU teams and assess and intervene with malnourished patients. A vital function they provide is the ongoing training and mentoring of dietetic interns, to assure the skill of the next generation of dietitians. Nutritional care is provided in conjunction with the bariatric program, and a recent role is in the new detox unit, with quality of life optimized for all patients.
Outpatient (various facilities)
The outpatient nutrition group addresses diabetes, weight loss, cardiac diseases and a variety of other illnesses as well as wellness during their one-on-one counseling sessions and group classes. With the advantage of telehealth, the outpatient dietitians use state-of-the-art technology to reach patients who otherwise would not be able to take advantage of our services. The outpatient dietitians are based at Medical Center East, Medical Center Northeast, Shelbyville Hospital and Mary & Elizabeth Hospital and are highly trained to be able to educate the outpatient population on optimal nutrition interventions.
Peace Hospital
Peace Hospital dietitian, Tracy McClanahan, RD, LD, plays a critical role in the care of the behavioral health population. As the nutrition expert in this specialized field, she works closely with patients and family members, both adults and adolescents, and in the Innovations unit, to assure that all needs are met. With her expertise, the patients at Peace Hospital can be assured that they are receiving the highest quality of care to enable them to focus on healing.
UofL Hospital
UofL Hospital dietitians form a highly skilled and trained nutrition care team that takes great pride in providing the best patient care. The nutrition team developed the first dietitian-driven feeding tube placement program in Kentucky, enhancing patient care with accelerated nutrition. As an essential member of the NICU interdisciplinary team, our neonatal dietitian is at the forefront of current research and guidelines. The entire team is an integral part of the quality patient care provided at UofL Hospital.
Help celebrate our registered dietitians on March 10 by giving a wave, elbow bump or just a “thank you” for their hard work and dedication to patient care!