Diet Therapy

What does the Diet Therapy career field do?

Performs duties in Nutrition Care Management (NCM), Foodservice Operations Management (FOM), Point-of-Sale (POS) management, and equipment/personnel management. Diet Technicians (DTs) specialize in clinical and non-clinical dietetics, applying systematic approaches to enhance warfighter readiness and foster a culture of nutritional fitness. When no Registered Dietitian (RD) is assigned, DTs consults with Major Command RD. Related DoD Occupational Subgroup: 132500.

Duties and responsibilities

• Nutrition Care Management. Demonstrates ethics, competence, health equity, quality in practice, leadership, effective communication, and advocacy, with dietary modifications, nutrition support, Nothing Per Oral (NPO), food allergies, diet-drug interactions, individual nourishments, bulk nourishments for new patient admissions, discharges, or transfers, therapeutic-in-flight meals, box lunches, and field feeding. Prepares and cooks subsistence to conform with recipes and menus in accordance with food production reports. Assembles patient tray service area and patient trays, loads on food carts, and delivers to nursing units. Picks up food carts containing soiled trays from the nursing unit and disassembles patient trays in the washing area. Cleans and sanitizes trays, insulated base/cover combos, dishware, utensils, food carts, work area, and equipment. Disassembles cleans and sanitizes patient tray service assembly areas. Provides field feeding, accountability, sanitation, and layout during disasters or contingencies.
• Food Safety and Security Operations Management. Determines food items to order based on menu requirements, tracks incoming and outgoing requisitions, analyzes nutrient information at the food item, recipe, and menu level, maintains adequate food inventory required for ingredients, recipes, and menus, places prime vendor/local purchase/logistics orders, generates reports to forecast order amounts for future meal production, scales recipes, and menu amounts according to production needs, tests and creates new recipes, and integrates nutrition services to trace the cost of all foods served to patients. Protects the food service budget, conducts inventory, ensures end-to-end proper food handling in accordance with hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), buys food at optimal prices with electronic ordering, captures profit margins by setting retail sales prices for food items based on the purchase prices, centralizes the production/kitchen environment, and supports healthy initiatives by leveraging ingredient information for food labels and café menus.
• Point-Of-Sale Management. Uses a browser-based application for dynamic retail management, collects payments using various local methods, and turns in reports/monies per local guidance. Operates local data storage on the register in stand-alone mode in case of a network outage.
• Data Management. Completes and turns in NCM and FOM records and workload reporting data. Interprets reports to review historical trends and recognize problem areas and negative patterns, drives corrective action, enhances future best practices, and promotes utilizing enterprise food service systems to ensure clean data.
• Equipment/Personnel Management. Inspects and evaluates nutritional medicine facilities and equipment for proper maintenance, operation, and use and addresses issues promptly. Monitors NCM and FOM standards. Embodies ready, reliable care principles to ensure leadership commitment, a culture of safety, continuous process improvement, and patient-centeredness and recommends corrective actions in a coordinated path to high-reliability dietetic services. Directs, inspects, and evaluates completed personnel work, establishes work schedules/assignments and job descriptions, and resolves technical difficulties. Formulates and follows policy and guidelines and advises RDN on equipment status, maintenance, adequacy, personnel training, operational efficiency, and economy.
• Clinical Dietetics. Provides nutrition care services for patients/clients under the supervision of the RDN to address the prevention and treatment of acute and chronic diseases and conditions and promote overall health and wellness. Assists with the collection of data and other activities; assists with providing ongoing management and revision of nutrition interventions reflecting patient/client response to nutrition care including timely reporting of observations and communications with the patient/client, family, or caregiver; implements and monitors evidence-based nutrition interventions, as assigned by the RDN, to meet the nutritional needs of the patient/client, including, but not limited to, prescribed diets, snacks/nourishments, medical foods/nutrition supplements, and data collection of nutrition support therapies; provides nutrition information and education per career field guidelines to individuals, families, or caregivers to address prevention, health maintenance, treatment, and restorative health care. Develops menus and recipes and completes nutritional analysis of menus, recipes, and food records. In direct patient/client care, all types of information are collected, including assessment and evaluation, reporting observations, and communicating with the patient/client, family, or caregiver. The RDN supervises DTs who provide nutrition care as assigned by the RDN.
• Non-Clinical Dietetics. Coordinates as part of an interdisciplinary team to provide installation personnel with a comprehensive approach to Total Force Fitness, addressing physical, social, psychological, environmental, nutritional, financial, spiritual, medical, and dental aspects. Collaborates with other professionals to develop/provide education and resources through various channels, including classes, workshops, digital platforms, and unit integration that cover a wide range of topics. The role of the diet technician on these teams is to inform healthy dietary choices, assess mission-driven nutrient requirements, evaluate and intervene on the nutrition environment, and provide community based nutrition assessments. Ensures installation personnel receive the necessary guidance and support to maintain optimal health and well-being, contributing to their readiness and performance.

Specialty qualifications

Knowledge. Knowledge is mandatory for conducting comprehensive dietary assessments, developing personalized nutrition care plans; supporting evidence-based medical nutrition therapy, monitoring and adjusting therapeutic diets based on patients' clinical progress and nutritional needs, providing nutrition education and supporting behavior change; expertise in disease management, including the ability to develop specialized nutrition interventions for various medical conditions; proficiency in counseling techniques, meal planning, and portion control; interdisciplinary collaboration skills; staying updated with current research in nutritional medicine; contributing to program development, and participating in quality improvement initiatives; strong communication and teamwork abilities, research knowledge, and the ability to implement evidence-based practices are vital qualifications for this role.

Education. For entry into this specialty, completion of high school is desirable with courses in mathematics, chemistry, biology, and food preparation.

Training.

• For award of AFSC 4D031, completion of a diet therapy course is mandatory.

Experience. The following experience is mandatory for award of AFSC indicated:

• 4D051. Qualification in and possession of AFSC 4D031. Also, experience in inpatient operations, outpatient operations, culinary and hospitality, personnel management, data analytics, resource management, safety, leadership, professional development, communication, readiness, and integrated clinical nutrition at the basic and intermediate levels.
• 4D071. Qualification in and possession of AFSC 4D051. Also, experience in inpatient operations, outpatient operations, culinary and hospitality, personnel management, data analytics, resource management, safety, leadership, professional development, communication, readiness, and integrated clinical nutrition at the advanced level. The following certifications are mandatory:
• Weight Management – A healthy-eating plan that facilitates long-term lifestyle changes to maintain a healthy body weight based on your age, height, and gender.
• Carbohydrate Counting- a dietary pattern that helps control blood sugar levels in individuals with diabetes or gestational diabetes
• Prenatal Care – A healthy-eating plan that promotes adequate nutrition balance during pregnancy.
• Heart Healthy – A healthy-eating plan that helps lower/control blood cholesterol/high blood pressure levels and lowers the risk for coronary heart disease.
• 4D091. Qualification in and possession of AFSC 4D071. Also, experience managing functions such as- inpatient operations, outpatient operations, culinary and hospitality, personnel management, data analytics, resource management, safety, leadership, professional development, communication, readiness, and financial accounting at the expert level.

Other. The following are mandatory as indicated:

• See attachment 4 for mandatory entry requirements.
• For award and retention of these AFSCs, must maintain local network access IAW AFI 17-130, Cybersecurity Program Management and AFMAN 17-1301, Computer Security.

Civilian career paths

Comparable civilian careers for this field pay roughly $26,070–$63,090 per year (median salaries; varies by role and location):

• Bakers: $29,400
• Community Health Workers: $42,000
• Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria: $28,650
• Cooks, Private Household: $32,630
• Cooks, Restaurant: $28,800
• Dietetic Technicians: $30,110
• Dietitians and Nutritionists: $63,090
• First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers: $34,570
• Food Preparation Workers: $26,070
• Food Service Managers: $56,590