Professional Standards for Renal Dietitian: A Comparison among Different Countries

Abstract

Dietary therapy plays a key role in the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD): it prevents and corrects metabolic need of renal complications, ensures the maintenance or achievement of a good nutritional status and, in the conservative phase, delays the replacement therapy. There are many evidences showing that the nutritional treatment performed by a renal dietitian improves the quality of life of CKD patients, increases the effectiveness of dietary therapy and reduce costs. In the United States there are specific parameters that identify the renal dietitian (RD) and three categories of RD have been identified according to the training degree and acquired competence. In European countries the training of dietitians is very heterogeneous making it difficult to compare it with the USA reality. The European Federation of the Association of Dietitian in recent years, however, has defined academic and professional standards for dietitians and it has identified four roles of responsibility and the related performance indicators. In Italy the National Association of Dietitians has defined its positions on the professional practice of the dietitian working with renal diseases and the Italian Society of Nephrology outlined the profile of the renal dietitian, but no specific academic and professional standards have been yet defined. Dietitians expert in nephrology and nephrologists should work together to define the standards that a dietitian working in a nephrology setting should reach in order to ensure not only high professional competence but also enable uniformity of treatment throughout the country.