Dietitian

General Purpose

The Dietitian is responsible for the comprehensive nutritional assessment, care planning, and ongoing monitoring of residents within the skilled nursing facility.

This role ensures the delivery of individualized, evidence-based nutrition services that promote optimal health outcomes, support healing, and enhance residents' quality of life.

The Dietitian collaborates closely with nursing, physicians, speech-language pathology, and the broader interdisciplinary team to develop and implement medical nutrition therapy for residents with complex clinical conditions.

This position maintains full compliance with CMS Conditions of Participation, state dietetic practice standards, and facility policies while driving continuous improvement in nutritional care quality across the organization.

Responsibilities

Nutritional Assessment & Care Planning

• Conduct comprehensive nutritional assessments for all newly admitted residents within required regulatory timeframes, including evaluation of dietary history, anthropometric data, laboratory values, clinical condition, and functional status.
• Develop individualized Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) plans and dietary prescriptions based on residents' clinical diagnoses, nutritional status, cultural preferences, and personal goals.
• Perform ongoing nutritional monitoring and reassessments at required intervals and in response to significant changes in condition, updating care plans to reflect current clinical needs.
• Identify residents at nutritional risk and implement timely, targeted interventions to prevent or address malnutrition, unplanned weight loss, pressure injuries, and other nutrition-related complications.
• Collaborate with the interdisciplinary care team to integrate nutritional care plans with the overall resident plan of care, ensuring coordinated and holistic clinical management.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration & Communication

• Serve as the primary clinical nutrition expert within the interdisciplinary team, participating in care conferences, QAPI meetings, and clinical rounds to represent the nutritional perspective in resident care decisions.
• Collaborate with physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to communicate nutritional findings, obtain appropriate diet and supplement orders, and ensure alignment between medical management and nutrition therapy.
• Partner with speech-language pathology to address dysphagia management, texture-modified diet prescriptions, and safe swallowing strategies for residents with oral motor or swallowing impairments.
• Provide ongoing nutrition-related consultation and education to nursing staff, certified nursing assistants, and dietary aides to promote consistent implementation of nutritional care plans at the bedside.
• Communicate proactively with residents and families regarding nutritional goals, dietary modifications, and appetite concerns, supporting informed decision-making and resident-centered care.

Clinical Quality & Outcomes

• Develop, implement, and monitor a comprehensive nutrition quality management program, including clinical audits, weight trend tracking, pressure injury nutritional protocols, and malnutrition identification processes.
• Analyze nutritional quality indicators, unplanned weight loss rates, laboratory trends, and enteral nutrition outcomes to identify patterns and drive measurable improvement in resident nutritional health.
• Lead nutrition-related QAPI initiatives, presenting clinical findings, data analysis, and evidence-based recommendations to leadership and quality committees on a regular basis.
• Collaborate with MDS coordinators and clinical documentation teams to ensure accurate and complete capture of nutritional diagnoses, weight status, and nutrition support interventions to support appropriate PDPM reimbursement classification.
• Review and investigate nutrition-related incident reports, adverse events, and near misses, implementing corrective actions and process improvements to prevent recurrence.

Regulatory Compliance & Survey Readiness

• Ensure all nutritional care services, documentation, and clinical practices comply with CMS Conditions of Participation, state dietetic licensing requirements, OBRA regulations, and facility policies.
• Maintain comprehensive, audit-ready nutritional assessment records, care plans, physician orders, and progress notes across the resident population.
• Lead nutrition-related survey preparation activities, including mock audits, documentation reviews, and staff education, and actively support the facility during federal and state survey visits.
• Develop and implement plans of correction for any nutrition-related survey deficiencies, monitoring ongoing compliance and sustainability of corrective measures.
• Stay current on evolving CMS regulations, PDPM nutritional clinical categories, state dietetic practice acts, and industry standards, communicating relevant updates to clinical and administrative leadership.

Dietary Operations & Menu Management

• Oversee the development, implementation, and evaluation of therapeutic diet menus, texture-modified diets, and specialized nutritional protocols that meet the clinical and preference needs of the resident population.
• Collaborate with the dietary manager and food service team to ensure meal preparation, portion sizes, nutrient composition, and food safety practices align with residents' prescribed diets and regulatory standards.
• Evaluate and recommend oral nutritional supplements, enteral formulas, and specialized nutritional products that optimize clinical outcomes and support cost-effective resource utilization.
• Monitor food and nutrition service delivery, including meal quality, resident satisfaction, tray accuracy, and dining environment, implementing improvements as needed to enhance the nutritional care experience.
• Manage relationships with nutrition supplement vendors and enteral product suppliers, ensuring reliable availability of clinically appropriate products.

Education, Collaboration & Strategic Development

• Provide nutrition education and clinical guidance to residents, families, nursing staff, and interdisciplinary team members to promote integrated and evidence-based approaches to nutritional care across the organization.
• Develop and deliver in-service education programs for dietary and nursing staff on topics including malnutrition recognition, hydration management, enteral nutrition, texture-modified diets, and PDPM nutritional documentation.
• Collaborate with admissions and clinical leadership to support census development efforts by articulating the facility's clinical nutrition capabilities to referral sources and hospital partners.
• Advise organizational leadership on strategic opportunities related to nutrition service line development, including specialized nutrition programs for high-acuity post-acute populations.
• Participate in professional organizations, continuing education activities, and industry forums to maintain advanced clinical expertise and bring best practices back to the organization.

Qualifications

• Regular and reliable attendance is required to perform the essential functions of this position.
• Bachelor's degree in Dietetics, Nutrition, or a related field from an accredited program required; master's degree in Dietetics, Clinical Nutrition, or Healthcare Administration preferred.
• Current Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) credential issued by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) required.
• Current, unrestricted dietitian licensure in the state of practice required where applicable.
• Current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification required or ability to obtain upon hire.
• Minimum of 2–3 years of clinical dietetics experience; experience in a skilled nursing, long-term care, or post-acute care setting strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated clinical expertise in medical nutrition therapy for complex conditions including malnutrition, renal disease, diabetes, dysphagia, pressure injuries, and enteral nutrition management within a long-term care environment.
• Strong knowledge of CMS Conditions of Participation, PDPM nutritional clinical categories, OBRA regulations, and long-term care survey processes.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills with the ability to engage effectively with clinical staff, administrators, physicians, residents, and families.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Frequent standing, walking, bending, and reaching throughout the facility during resident assessments, interdisciplinary meetings, dietary rounds, and educational activities.
• Ability to lift and carry nutrition supplies, supplement products, and assessment materials weighing up to 25 lbs.
• Exposure to residents with infectious conditions; strict adherence to standard and transmission-based precautions and appropriate PPE use is required at all times.
• Flexible scheduling may be required, including occasional weekends, holidays, or extended hours during survey activity, staffing changes, or critical resident care needs.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.
• Work occurs throughout the skilled nursing facility, including resident rooms, dining areas, rehabilitation spaces, dietary services areas, and administrative offices.
• Regular exposure to residents with complex medical conditions in a healthcare environ