Is your dietitian legit?

In SA, not everyone who offers nutrition advice is qualified to do so. Only professionals registered with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) under the Professional Board for Dietetics and Nutrition (DNB) can call themselves dietitians or nutritionists.

The public is urged to be vigilant and ensure they are consulting registered practitioners. Here’s why HPCSA registration matters — and how to tell if the expert you’re seeing is the real deal.

The role of the HPCSA

The HPCSA is a statutory body established in terms of the Health Professions Act (Act 56 of 1974), which provides for the control over the education, training and registration of health professionals.

As a statutory body, it protects the public and guides the dietetics and nutrition professions. 

How the HPCSA protects the public:

• The Professional Board for Dietetics and Nutrition (DNB) ensures the registration, and maintenance of registration, of dietitians and nutritionists with a Bachelor’s degree in Dietetics or Nutrition from a South African university offering a DNB-approved programme. Approval of university programmes is reviewed every five years based on compliance with the training standards of the DNB, HPCSA and Council for Higher Education requirements for registration and professional practice of students and practitioners. Practitioners may only perform professional acts aligned with their education, training, and experience.
  
  
• Should a member of the public feel aggrieved by the services provided by registered practitioners, the HPCSA offers a formal complaints process. Complaints can be lodged via the HPCSA website or via email (legalmed@hpcsa.co.za). 
  
  
• It implements the regulations relating to the conduct of inquiries into alleged unprofessional conduct of registered practitioners in line with the Health Professions Act.

How it guides the dietetics and nutrition professions:

• By ensuring that dietetics and nutrition students are registered with the HPCSA from their first year of study at university, and after graduating, as community service practitioners and then finally as independent practitioners.
  
  
• Through the development of the professional scope for dietitians, which includes preventive, curative, and rehabilitation areas of practice, namely therapeutic and community nutrition, food service management and research.
  
  
• Though the development of the professional scope for nutritionists, which includes nutrition promotion, and prevention and rehabilitation aspects in the practice areas of community, public health nutrition, food service management and research. 
  
  
• By producing guideline booklets on matters pertaining to professional practice, such as business practices, practitioners’ impairment, continuing professional development (CPD) and ethics and human rights. CPD ensures professionals maintain and update their professional competence, promote and protect the public interest, and provide the best possible healthcare service to the community. CPD is a responsibility of every registered health practitioner, including dietitians and nutritionists. 

What is the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist?

Both dietitians and nutritionists are experts in diet and nutrition. They also both engage in nutrition promotion and advocacy, and manage large-scale food services to meet the nutritional needs of specific target groups. 

However, there is a difference based on their practice areas:

• Dietitians treat individuals one-on-one to improve their nutritional health in a variety of settings, including public and private hospitals, private practice and research institutions. They help with a range of conditions, such as diabetes, eating disorders, heart disease, malnutrition, gastrointestinal diseases, obesity, food allergies and intolerances, and renal disease.
  
  
• Nutritionists work primarily in the public health and community nutrition sector, focusing on promoting, preventing and rehabilitating nutrition-related illness for groups and populations. They use applied research to conduct surveillance and population needs assessment and plan specific programmes to address the needs they have identified. They also develop, manage, implement, monitor and evaluate programmes that promote optimal nutrition throughout the life cycle. 

How do you know you are consulting a registered dietitian or nutritionist?

• A registered dietitian or nutritionist must always carry their practice card as evidence of their registration with the HPCSA to be shown to a client upon request. The practising cards are issued annually and are valid from April 1 to March 30 the following year.
  
  
• Their HPCSA registration certificate and university degree are usually displayed in their private practice at the reception or consultation room.
  
  
• You can search for their registration status on the HPCSA website by typing in their full names or by calling the HPCSA call centre on 012 338 9300/1.

How will I know if the practitioner I am visiting is bogus or unregistered?

A bogus or unregistered practitioner won’t be able to present their current HPCSA registration card upon request. You are usually required to pay cash for their services, which cannot be claimed back from recognised medical schemes.

Non-qualified individuals may call themselves names related to dietetics and nutrition such as dietetic or nutrition coach, gurus, experts, and so on. However, the HPCSA has regulated names that are not to be used by people who are not registered with the DNB.

This article was sponsored by the HPCSA.