Nutrition/Dietetics Personal Statement

I have always recognised the crucial importance of a well-balanced diet to a healthy lifestyle. I would like to combine my interest in healthy eating with a career in which I can help others to lead a healthier lifestyle through changing their dietary habits. With obesity rates in the developed world continuing to increase, I believe dieticians will have an increasingly important role to play in combating society’s health problems. Having learnt a great deal about both nutrition and the nature of dieticians’ work in recent years, I am aware that role is a challenging one. However, I am passionate about helping people to lead healthier lives, and as a consequence I am determined to follow this career path and play a role in helping people.

I am currently completing Birkbeck College’s Certificate in Subjects Allied to Medicine, a course of study that has proved to be a very rewarding introduction to the core subject areas required for further study of a healthcare-related degree. The course has provided me with a very thorough grounding in chemistry and biology, and I have also enjoyed it as an introduction to the demands of university-level study. I have also attended several short courses on the subjects of dietetics and nutrition, such as Kensington and Chelsea College’s course in Nutrition, Healthy Eating and Weight Management. This course was a particularly worthwhile experience as it was taught by Antia Tull, whose books on nutrition have exerted a very significant influence on me and helped to strengthen my understanding of the subject and its importance. To find out more about the work of dieticians, I have attended events such as Careers in Dietetics, organized by King’s College London. Going to such events has given me a much clearer idea of the profession and the role played by dieticians in the health service. Meeting current dietetics students and practicing professionals has also made me aware of the possibilities of changing people’s lives for the better through working as a dietician, a reward that greatly appeals to me.

Part of my motivation to take a stronger interest in dietetics stems from my working experiences as a nanny. Working in this role for several years helped me to gain a true appreciation of the role played by food in childhood development. Through working so closely with children, I am highly aware of the fact that a good-quality diet does not just have a highly positive effect on a child’s long-term development, but also has a very important impact on a child’s day-to-day behaviour. Children who are not fed a nutritionally balanced diet are much more prone to feeling tired, unhappy and unable to concentrate, which in turn can impair their ability to learn and to play. Accordingly, I have made great efforts while working as a nanny to learn as much as possible about nutrition and dietetics and put this knowledge into practice with the goal of making sure that the children in my care receive the best possible start in life.  As well as greatly enjoying working as a nanny because of the opportunities it gave me to work closely with children, I believe the experience also equipped me with a number of skills that I believe are also an important aspect of the work of dieticians.  Caring for children requires patience, empathy and excellent communication skills, and I feel that the time I have spent working as a nanny has helped me to develop these attributes. In addition to having worked as a nanny, I also used to work as a sales assistant in a busy store. The experience that helped me to learn how to work under pressure and as part of a team, and I think these are also important skills for healthcare professionals to have.

In the long term I hope to be able to work as a paediatric dietician. The possibility of combining my love of child care with my enthusiasm for nutrition inspires me, and I look forward to the possibility of achieving this goal through completing a degree in nutrition and dietetics.

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