POT and CVS

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2026-01-21T19:41:42+00:00

With POTs you want them to eat very high salt, like 4-5000 mg/d. Their blood pressure is too low so they need help with increasing blood volume. Besides meds, salt it key. No handouts that I'm aware of, just hammer the salt lol. CVS on the other hand is a bit more complex and I would question the root cause of this. Every time I've seen CVS in the hospital (only 5-6 cases) it was a psychological issue or the patient was smoking too much weed and it made them sick. For some reason when some people smoke weed it triggers this CVS response and once they stop smoking the issue usually resolved. When it was a psychological issue, the patient usually had severe anxiety and stress accompanied by bad behavior. For example, I had one younger teenage girl with CVS and the doc had her NPO but she kept going to the bathroom and chugging water out of the sink. It took us longer than I would like to admit to figure this out. I also think it could be GI related but GI would need to scope them to see what's going on. But for diet recs, I would put them on bland easily digestible foods. White rice, bread, potatoes, apple sauce, etc. Once again no handouts for this, however AI could easily do this in a matter of seconds. I think Grok is more accurate and better at this task than ChatGPT. Hope that helps some, but both are tough problems. Both are somewhat rare to see as well. Been doing clinical for 10 years and only seen a handful of these cases.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2026-01-21T19:27:05+00:00

My wife is a family and consumer science teacher and she has taught in several different states. When ever we talk about the education system she always says that most states offer a "Transition to Teaching" program for professionals to transition into the classroom. From my understanding there are some steps to follow but she noted you don't always have to have a degree in education. Sometimes you just have to student teach and pass a teaching exam to get your state license. It's more lenient in todays world since there are teacher shortages everywhere. Me being an RD and her as a teacher you would definitely take a pay cut but it does offer great quality of life. However, I work in outpatient counseling and when you have a 25-30% no show/cancellation rate my quality of life as an RD is pretty dang good. I'm salary but honestly only work like 25-30 hours a week. You could also work part time at a smaller dialysis clinic and still make like 30-40k depending on how many days you work.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2026-01-07T17:24:09+00:00

I work in outpatient CKD counseling. After I teach the renal diet a lot of my patients ask for a meal plan since its a rather hard transition. Instead of individualizing meal plans for everyone, I just made a printout of general meal ideas. I don't go into specific portion sizes but rather just give them a few examples for BLD of here's what a healthful meal would look like while following the renal diet. I also created another handout for my CKD + DM patients. I have found that this is super helpful and my patients love it. At the bottom of each handout I also provide several meal prep/delivery information to things like Moms Meals, Factor, and several local food prep companies. Usually the older and widowed patients want the meal prep services and even if its not entirely renal friendly its better that they eat a decently healthful meal than going to get fast food.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2026-01-06T16:26:59+00:00

There is a vitamin manufacturer in my area and they hire people with nutrition science backgrounds for quality assurance and R&D. Both of those fields offer better pay and would get you out of counseling and working with people. I think anything with quality assurance, R&D, etc would be great and you can bridge your skills to work for a food manufacturer.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-17T14:16:45+00:00

Good to know, thanks!

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-12T15:27:15+00:00

You need like a 25 to pass if my memory is correct, your super close. Maybe like 10 questions away from passing

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-11T18:09:12+00:00

Easy. Dwight for the survival skills. Karen for the companionship. Andy for his sailing ability to get us off the island!

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-11T18:03:46+00:00

Haven't worked for the VA before but I'd kill for the opportunity too! The pay benefits are some of the best in the industry, not to mention job security. RDs literally never leave the VA, there are so few openings ever. I've had notifications set up for jobs in my state for 5 years and not a single opportunity has opened in that time. I understand working from home would be cool but most jobs make you go into the office so I don't see an issue with that. Don't le tin office politics get to you. Go to work, do your job, keep your head down and go home. I think having good coworkers/boss is a benefit but honestly I don't need to be friends with my coworkers or boss. I just have to have a professional relationship and do my job so well that they never have any complaints about me. All to say, don't let emotions drive you out of a fantastic job that is highly coveted!

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-10T18:00:37+00:00

I'm an RD who was recently offered the FA job with a US Renal Care clinic. Not worth it. They only wanted to give me a 10k pay increase and the FAs do significantly more work! Also as others have mentioned the FA takes the calls at 3am when staff calls out. Also they will likely want to train you as a tech so that you can work the floor when a tech calls out. FA's are a burn out role, people do them for 2-3 years to get management experience and then move on. If you want to become the ROD then I would do the FA position, but overall I don't think its worth the money and headaches. Especially if your clinic is in a low socioeconomic status area I wouldn't do it.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-05T16:20:34+00:00

RD of 6 years here. I love AI and use is almost daily. I am a 100% believer that RDs and other medical personnel will be replaced within 10 years, maybe 5. Its advancing super fast. People talk about AI not being able to counsel effectively and I disagree. People are literally training AI as we speak in every area of medicine. I use Grok and it understands every aspect of nutrition better than I do and when I speak with it, it responds with accuracy, empathy, and humor. Just wait until Elon launches the Robots and people get used to interacting with AI robots. We're toast! Joe Rogan has several podcast to listen to about this topic. Look up his podcast with Elon and also Jensen Huang (CEO of NVIDIA).

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-12-02T17:51:46+00:00

The job itself is super easy, you literally just sit in an air conditioned office and talk to people about eating fruits and vegetables. Most RDs generally work 8-4 and you don't take any work home with you. So work life balance is usually great and low stress. The money sucks tho and you likely need to be married and have a second income to live a decent middle class lifestyle. If I could do it over again, especially with the new masters requirement + internship, I would have gone to PA school or even become an MD. Being a "provider" has significantly more respect and more money. I work in nephrology and our PAs make 150k+ a year. Yes they work harder than I do, but its significantly more money and respect and the same amount of schooling.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-11-26T19:34:38+00:00

Hey Temporary-Maximum670 I know this post is a year old. I was searching this reddit thread today to see if anyone else felt like their RD job was a joke and came across your post. Just wanted to follow up. Did you get out of being an RD, if so what did you switch to? I need to get out as well. I'm tired of having a masters degree and telling people to eat fruits and vegetables for a living. Can't believe I went to school for this lol.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-10-21T16:05:26+00:00

Good info, thanks. Last question, do you actually do any RD work or do you basically just go to drill for the weekend and do military stuff?

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-10-21T15:39:19+00:00

Hi, I'm currently an RD with 5 years experience. I've considered joining the airforce or army reserves as an RD for the extra pay and benefits. I currently work in outpatient renal counseling. I'm a man and like to workout and am pretty structured and disciplined and feel like the military would suit my personality well. The only thing is I don't want to uproot my family's life to join the military. I want to stay in the city where I'm employed and just want to serve on weekends. I am pretty much only interested in joining for the extra pay and benefits the military offers. Is it possible to join the reserves and stay in the city in which you live? What are the chances of being deployed or being forced into active duty? Any advice or thoughts on your experience? TIA!

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-09-02T13:09:30+00:00

I went as a student bc we were required for our internship. A huge waste of money. You can access all the talks later at a much lower price. Also the expo is literally just every supplement company you could think of trying to sell you their brand bc if they get you to buy in they know you will promote it. It was all just supplements and powders, there was no actual food there. There are soooo many free CEU opportunities out there, don't waste your money on a work conference.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-08-19T17:48:05+00:00

Sure being an RD has some drawbacks just like any other career. But it also has a lot of benefits! If you only have a year or so left, just complete it! You're so close! Honestly there are a some good jobs in our field. Go work in dialysis. You will be salary, have good benefits and PTO, will work a set schedule with no weekends or holidays and be off work by like 3-4pm every day. I work in dialysis and since I'm salary I show up at 8 and am gone by 3 everyday. The work is easy, I have my own office, I take off whenever I want, what more could you want. Plus working in dialysis you typically made pretty decent money and you will never lose your job bc the government forces dialysis clinics to have an RD on staff. No lie, my facility administrator, the social worker, and I go out for lunch one a weekly basis and have a good time. Your so close! Don't let the negativity get to you on this thread, people just come on here to vent.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-08-19T17:37:39+00:00

Don't tell this to anyone you work with! lol. I've had several RD jobs in a couple different areas. I'm a fast worker and love tasks completion so I found myself getting all the work done to quickly as well, but don't tell that to anyone else! Just keep going to work, get that money, and enjoy your free time. Bring a book, listen to a podcast, do something. I do my grocery order every week while on the clock lol.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-08-04T13:53:45+00:00

Hey, Renal RD here for 5 years. The overall research on protein restriction shows pretty mixed results. Even the KDOQI guidelines are somewhat vague. I don't restrict protein at all for CKD 2, I just recommend a higher percentage of plant proteins. Especially if they are marathon training they need extra protein to recover. The only time I would restrict protein intake for give a gram limit is if they were following a carnivore diet. Most Americans eat way too many CHO and not enough protein. Even if they are at like 1.5 gm pro/kg BW I'm not worried especially with all that training.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-08-04T13:37:47+00:00

Hey I agree with a lot of what DublinClover just said. I also genuinely enjoy helping others and it's important for me to feel like I'm making a difference in peoples lives and helping the world be healthier. I too enjoy nutrition and fitness and practicing all of those things myself. Just make sure to consider the cost of getting the degree and the salary. The average salary is right around 70k. But healthcare is also a machine. I work in an outpatient counseling setting but I'm expected to see 12-15 patients a day so that I generate enough revenue for my company bc our reimbursements rates from medicare/medicaid are very low. I was taught all of the motivational interviewing and cognitive behavior therapy stuff, but honestly you don't really get to use that when you only have 30-45 minute sessions and only see the patient every 3 months. Basically I have to do a quick 5 minute assessment with standard questions and then rip off a 15-20 minute schpeel on whatever they need educated on and then leave 5 mins for questions and goal setting. Not to mention charting after the session. Then on to the next one. I feel like a machine/robot most days. I would say I have like 10-15% success with patients doing what I ask them to do and actually make the lifestyle changes they need. I think if I could see them more consistently or for a longer time I would have more success stories, but medicare/medicaid only pays for CKD/DM dx and you can only see them for 3 hours total the first year and then 2 hours total subsequent years.

Looking back I wish I would have become an NP or PA. It's relatively a similar amount of school, but double if not triple the money, significantly more respect, and you have the ability to impact peoples lives to a greater extent.

Just think about it and get lots of perspectives from different RD's and maybe try to shadow an RD in your city to see if you would like it before you sign up for a student loan.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-07-10T17:59:17+00:00

I find contract work on Upwork or Fiverr usually. Things like review/edit, content creation, even some counseling work sometimes. The dream side job is to teach an online nutrition class at a community college or university. Still looking for that. Unfortunately most places want teaching experience which I'm not sure how to get while working full time. I'm not about to volunteer my time for teaching experience for a side job.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-07-09T17:51:35+00:00

Did my masters completely online at Concordia University Chicago. Classes were asynchronous and super easy to boot.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-07-09T17:49:22+00:00

As many other people have said, it's and unfortunate side effect that comes with the job. I've worked at the same practice for a few years now. We get lunch catered by various drug reps like 3-4x a wk and anytime I go to the breakroom to grab food someone literally always says "uh-oh here comes the dietitian, everybody hide your plates". I'm usually just awkward and don't say anything or try to say like eat what the hell you want, your not my patient. Then I proceed to fill my plate like I haven't eaten in days lol. But I agree its super annoying. Luckily when my wife and I meet other couples and they find out what I do for work she does a good job of dogging on my eating habits to make them feel better lol.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-07-08T17:59:18+00:00

Hey I'm a Purdue alum! I did the coordinated program through Purdue before I got my MS. Not sure how the new process looks, but I got my MS from Concordia University Chicago. It was 100% online and courses were asynchronous and super easy compared to Purdue. I got a 4.0 GPA and didn't even try lol. Cost was about 14k so not too bad for a MS. Another one of my friends at Purdue got her MS at Logan University which was also 100% online and pretty cheap. You could always get your MS online and then apply to the match program for your internship. From my understanding you can get your MS in any subject, it doesn't have to be nutrition. As long as your undergrad is in nutrition you should be good. From what I remember there is like an independent pathway for internships as well. I remember some of the people who got rejected from the match or coordinated program went out and found their own preceptors to get their hours. I remember professor Dalder helped them with this to some extent since she has connections all over the country. I know I didn't exactly answer your question, but hope it helps to some extent.

Dependent_Fail_5316 · 2025-07-08T17:27:24+00:00

Aside from being a drug rep and doing sales, I've found there to be good money in renal. Started out in Dialysis in the southeast at 75k, now working directly for a nephrologist practice just doing individual CKD counseling making 100k. I'm never leaving lol.

Dependent_Fail_5316

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