Talknutrition4students: A credible online resource for RD2Be's

Effectively communicating nutrition information is the job of every registered dietitian. However, did you know less than 20% of dietetic academic programs offer a nutrition communication course? A former nutrition communication professor, Barbara Mayfield, was asked by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to help close this gap and make nutrition communication information available to all RD2Be’s and RD’s alike. She gathered a team of the top nutrition communicators in the dietetics field and wrote a textbook-style book filled with chapters about numerous communication channels called Communicating Nutrition: The Authoritative Guide. Barb began promoting the book on her own Instagram, but decided that she needed a better way to reach RD2Be’s. Being an effective communicator, she used her own tips from the book and went straight to the audience - dietetic students! Through using this very site, prerd.org, talknutrition4students was born.

Talknutrition4students is an Instagram account run by five dietetic students from the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Using chapters from Communicating Nutrition: The Authoritative Guide, we provide tips and tricks to future registered dietitians about how to improve their nutrition communication skills. This includes topics such as social media content, blogging, food photography, presentations, food demos, and more! During our current series we are interviewing nutrition professionals from various fields who share their advice and experiences with students. Our goal is to be a resource for students to gain access to nutrition communication information that they might not receive in their program classes.

Effective communication skills are even more crucial during this time of online meetings, distance learning, and social media. Communication competency is invaluable in any field, but especially in a healthcare setting where health and wellbeing are involved. The Instagram page aims to shed some additional light on how to properly communicate ideas and reach target audiences effectively, while ensuring that the audience remains interested. We have been working hard in order to bring this account to dietetic students across the world and provide them with the tools that will help them in their future careers as nutrition professionals. We strive to create engaging, relatable, and informative content in an easily shareable format that students can refer to at any time. Being an international team, we hope to offer multiple perspectives on how to effectively communicate evidence-based nutrition information to RD2Be’s that they can take with them as they go out into the workforce.

Head over to @talknutrition4students on Instagram and follow our page for new content every week! To learn more about the book visit bit.ly/communicating-nutrition.