Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Revised 2017 Standards of Practice in Nutrition Care and Standards of Professional Performance for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists

Registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) face complex situations every day. Competently addressing the unique needs of each situation and applying standards appropriately are essential to providing safe, timely, patient-/client-/customer-centered, quality nutrition and dietetics care and services. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Academy) leads the profession by developing standards that can be used by RDNs (who are credentialed by the Commission on Dietetic Registration) for self-evaluation to assess quality of practice and performance. The Standards of Practice reflect the Nutrition Care Process and workflow elements as a method to manage nutrition care activities with patients/clients/populations that include nutrition screening, nutrition assessment, nutrition diagnosis, nutrition intervention/plan of care, nutrition monitoring and evaluation, and discharge planning and transitions of care. The Standards of Professional Performance consist of six domains of professional performance: Quality in Practice, Competence and Accountability, Provision of Services, Application of Research, Communication and Application of Knowledge, and Utilization and Management of Resources. Within each standard, specific indicators provide measurable action statements that illustrate how the standard can be applied to practice. The Academy's Revised 2017 Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance for RDNs, along with the Academy's Code of Ethics and the Revised 2017 Scope of Practice for the RDN, provide minimum standards and tools for demonstrating competence and safe practice and are used collectively to gauge and guide an RDN's performance in nutrition and dietetics practice.