Annalien Turner: Dietitian
A registered dietitian (RD) is a healthcare professional who is a food and nutrition expert.Annalien Turner’s focus is to help people with various challenges, such as medical related problems (for example gut health, being overweight, diabetes, high cholesterol, gout and being underweight), sport nutrition and sometimes just to achieve optimal health through food and nutrition.
Her patients and work environment are different from that of an RD working in a state or community setting. She has several meetings with her patients, beginning with an assessment of their body composition measurements (weight, BMI and midsection circumference), medical history, dietary preferences and diet history.
“It is vital to note that Namibia does not currently provide a university education to qualify as an RD. It is also critical to understand that this is a four-year programme (rather than a three-year programme). You will need to acquire overall good grades to be admitted in a dietetic course because only a limited number of students are accepted to study dietetics in, for example, South Africa, which will increase the overall cost of studying dietetics,” she said.
According to her, when pursuing studies in this field, your disciplines should include two languages as well as mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics.
“Check with your preferred university to determine the academic requirements.”
After qualifying as an RD, you must register with the Health Professions Council of Namibia and the ministry of health and social services, she said.