One or three ways to train professional nutritionists

Recently, two news about nutritionists have attracted people's attention: First, it was revealed by the media that the National Nutrition Regulations, which is being formulated, stipulates that the dishes in canteens and catering units with more than 1,111 people are no longer prepared directly by chefs, but must be completed under the guidance of nutritionists; Dining halls and catering units with more than 311 people must be equipped with special nutrition managers. The other is that starting from this month, Shanghai has issued professional standards for nutritionists, and relevant personnel of primary and secondary schools, community service centers, nurseries, nursing homes and food production enterprises in Shanghai will take up their posts after receiving 211-311 hours of training. This means that the dietitian profession will officially enter the room, and in the future, you can no longer "become a monk halfway", but you need to go through professional training and become a "professional player" before you can take up your post.

There is a gap of 411,111 professional nutritionists

According to the introduction of Shanghai Nutrition Society, nutritionists are mainly responsible for nutrition guidance, dietary nutrition collocation and nutrition management. It is really a good thing for professional nutritionists to enter the people to improve their living standards, but there is a serious shortage of professional nutritionists at present.

It is understood that China has a population of 1.3 billion, but there are less than 2,111 professionals engaged in nutrition work, with an average of 1 professional nutritionists for every 651,111 people. In Japan, there are 1 nutritionists for every 331 people, and the number of nutritionists is 2.4 times that of clinicians, reaching more than 411,111; In the United States, the treatment of hospitalized patients must also involve nutritionists.

In a densely populated city like Shanghai, the shortage of nutritionists is more prominent. The reporter learned from the relevant departments that there are less than 311 nutritionists who have passed the professional and technical qualification examination of nutrition in Shanghai, most of whom are located in hospitals and other institutions, serving people with special needs, and there are only a handful of professional nutritionists facing the general public. Many restaurants in Shanghai have senior chef and first-class chefs, but few are equipped with nutritionists. The same is true of educational institutions. Except for a few large kindergartens, there are no specialized nutritionists in other primary and secondary schools and kindergartens.

According to the standard of "Dining rooms with more than 111 people must have nutritionists", there is a demand for nutritionists in dining units, schools, government agencies and enterprises with more than 111 people, and roughly speaking, there is a gap of at least 411,111. In the next few years, dietitian will become a hot job.

nutritionists have higher requirements

Although the career prospects of nutritionists are promising, the entry threshold is not low. Liu Genxi, a nutritionist in Shanghai First People's Hospital, told the reporter that the job of nutritionists is to study the complex relationship between food nutrients and human functional needs, involving nutrition collocation, nutrition complementarity and nutrition balance, which is a science. According to the different research fields and contents, nutritionists can be subdivided into children nutritionists, teenagers nutritionists and elderly nutritionists. Therefore, there are certain professional requirements for the knowledge and skills of employees.

Specifically, a qualified dietitian is the "trinity" of doctors, nutritionists and chefs. He should have knowledge of medicine, nutrition, food hygiene, food safety and nutritional cookery, and be able to mix different nutritional recipes for different groups of people and be familiar with food hygiene laws and regulations. Generally speaking, self-study is difficult because of the high requirements for employment, and it requires professional training.

Shanghai's professional training is obviously insufficient

The lack of nutritionists has driven the prosperity of the nutritionist training market. It is understood that at the end of last year, the first professional qualification training course for nutritionists was held in Guangzhou. Without much publicity, it attracted more than 81 students, most of whom were dietary directors of medical institutions and educational institutions. Chengdu has established a special nutrition training school; Hainan has developed a health nutritionist certification; Shenzhen has successively opened four training courses for nutritionists because of the strong market demand.

In contrast, Shanghai, which has a great demand for nutritionists, is not strong enough in professional training. It is understood that there are no training institutions involved in nutritionist training in Shanghai. According to the person in charge of a well-known vocational training institution, we have also considered offering relevant training, but the training program is not mature, and the teaching materials and teachers are very problematic. Moreover, today's training institutions pay attention to efficiency. Although nutritionists are in short supply, they have no idea to what extent and how much training is needed. Therefore, we dare not act rashly.

This situation has attracted the attention of relevant departments in Shanghai and taken measures. Starting from this month, Shanghai has issued professional standards for nutritionists, and relevant personnel from primary and secondary schools, community service centers, child care institutions, nursing homes and food production enterprises in Shanghai will take up their posts after receiving 211-311 hours of professional training. It is expected that the first batch will produce more than 6,111 nutrition instructors. This will effectively alleviate the shortage of nutritionists in Shanghai and promote the development of nutritionist training market. It can be predicted that more and more training institutions will set foot in this field in the future under the strong call of government departments.

Three ways for nutritionists to pursue further studies

As the saying goes, far water can't put out a near fire. Then, in the current limited training channels for nutritionists, how can those who are interested in this study further? Professionals recommended the following three channels:

■ Academic education

At present, Shanghai Second Medical University, Zhejiang Medical University, Sun Yat-sen Medical University, Tianjin Medical University, etc. have all set up medical nutrition majors or nutrition and food hygiene majors, and Zhengzhou University has also set up a postgraduate major in nutrition and food hygiene.

Suitable for the crowd: high school graduates who intend to engage in dietitian career, and undergraduate graduates who are interested in developing in this field.

■ Vocational training

At present, there are three national vocational training programs related to nutritionists: 1. National professional qualification certificate for nutritionists. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security is responsible for it, and * * * is divided into five grades. Those who pass the examination get the professional qualification certificate of dietitian issued by the national labor department. 2, nutrition and health care teacher certificate. It is jointly developed by the National Talent Flow Center of the Ministry of Personnel and the china health care association Mental Health Professional Committee, and is divided into three grades: junior, middle and senior. The national unified examination is held four times a year in March, June, September and February. The examination consists of three parts: written examination, evaluation and interview. Those who pass the examination can obtain the professional certificate of Nutrition and Health Care Technician issued by the National Talent Flow Center of the Ministry of Personnel, which is nationally numbered, electronically registered and universally used. 3. Nutritionist qualification certificate. The "National Health Professional and Technical Qualification Examination" organized by the Ministry of Health also has the "Dietitian Qualification Examination" project.

Suitable for people: people who have been engaged in teaching, scientific research, food or health food production and management, nutrition catering and nutrition consultation; Personnel engaged in the work of nutritious food, nutrition education and management in hotels, restaurants, institutions, schools, medical and health units; Enterprises, institutions or other people who are interested in dietitian occupation.

■ International courses

Some universities in the Netherlands, Japan, France, South Korea and other countries have set up courses related to nutrition. When domestic people go abroad to study such courses, they can get the latest nutrition knowledge and understand the global trends in nutrition research and management.

Suitable for people: people who intend to further improve in this field and have strong economic ability.

Second, the employment prospects of nutritionists

With the continuous development of economy and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, medicine will not only maintain health, but also pay more and more attention to how to further improve people's physique and enhance people's intelligence. Nutrition, ecology, psychology, biology and eugenics will be further developed, and nutrition talents will become more and more popular.

judging from the development trend of China's economy and medical and health undertakings, there is a great need for nutrition professionals. In order to adapt to the social development and the improvement of living standards, Japan, the United States and other countries have also held short-term "women's nutrition universities" to scientifically evaluate and guide the national dietary consumption, which shows that they attach importance to nutrition. With the development of society, the traditional concept of nutrition and the original way of life can no longer meet people's needs, such as unbalanced diet and excessive fat intake, which seriously harms human health. People begin to pay attention to diet and health care, require more knowledge of nutrition and health care, and need professional guidance and research. For example, district hospitals and community service centers all need professional doctors who know both clinical and nutrition. Shanghai has entered an aging society, and the establishment of more and more nursing homes requires nutritionists.

It can be seen that graduates of this kind of major will have very broad employment prospects.

There is a huge occupational gap for nutritionists in China (industry concerns)

Experts told reporters that although most people are concerned about nutrition, they still lack the necessary nutritional knowledge. Although they eat well, they do not eat healthily. Most people are over-nourished, but the related occupations-nutritionists are extremely scarce, and the proportion between their number and the total population is seriously unbalanced. In foreign countries, it is not unusual for nutritionists to adjust people's daily meals. However, in China, the profession of nutritionists is facing a serious gap.

One nutritionist for 311,111 people

In the health system, nutritionists are divided into public nutritionists and clinical nutritionists. The so-called nutritionists usually refer to public nutritionists. After SARS, people began to really pay attention to nutrition, which also pushed the lack of nutritionists to the forefront.

Mr. Wei Yue from the World Federation of Health Consultants revealed that there are about 4,111 nutrition and health professionals in China, that is, one nutritionist for every 311,111 people. Among the limited 4,111 people, most of them also became monks halfway, and few professionals. This is far from developed countries such as Switzerland and Japan. The number of nutritionists in Japan is over 411,111, and there is one nutritionist for every three or four hundred people.

Mr. Qu from the Vocational Skills Appraisal Guidance Center of the Ministry of Health said that the units that should be equipped with nutritionists include kindergartens, schools, communities, hospitals, enterprises and institutions, but the actual situation is worrying. It is understood that in kindergartens in Beijing, except for a few large-scale kindergartens, other kindergartens are not equipped with nutritionists. This is especially true in schools. A person from the Ministry of Health admits that it is difficult to find nutritionists in school canteens all over the country, and many school canteens are contracted to individuals.

It's not only kindergartens and schools that encounter the embarrassment that nutritionists are hard to find, but hospitals and communities are also facing the same problem. A recent survey by the Nutrition Society of China shows that only 47% of the 413 hospitals visited have nutrition departments, and more than half of them have no nutrition departments at all, let alone the provision of nutritionists. There are ***1722 nutrition-related staff in the hospital, but only 392 people are qualified as nutritionists, accounting for only 22%. Community work is numerous and trivial, and the problems of nutritionists are too busy to take care of.