🛠️ Chapter 4: Relevance to Practice
26 4.2: Dietetic Socialization
The Dietitian Mentorship Program (DMP) plays an essential role in helping students and new graduates transition into professional roles by focusing on essential skills like resume building, interview preparation, and exam strategies.
It is important to address the systemic barriers Black people face in dietetics. Mentorship should challenge Eurocentric models, promote cultural competency, and support racialized individuals to ensure diversity in nutrition education and practice.
Video 4.1: Founder of the Dietetic Mentorship Program, Savannah Black, discusses the importance of belonging in the dietetics profession. Black emphasizes how the program aims to create a supportive environment for racialized individuals, helping them overcome systemic barriers and feel valued in their professional journey.
Keywords: Belonging
“Because we are socialized in the program to be a certain way, being disruptive is really, really hard and going against maybe what you’ve been taught even if it contradicts your experience is very hard and so, my encouragement is to reflect deeply and to stay true to what it is your experience has been.”- Natalie Riediger
Video 4.2: Members of the Racism in Dietetics Research team, Eric Ng and Natalie Riediger discuss the impact of systemic and institutional racism on how Black students and dietitians are socialized within the dietetic field.
Keywords: Cultural Assimilation, Safe Space, Socialization.
Stop and Reflect
Although most of the currently available data is from the U.S., we have learned from members of the research in Canadian dietetics team that Canadian research is underway. Figure 4.1 summarizes U.S. and some Canadian findings.
Figure 4.1
Interactive Activity: Drag each example into the correct category (click the top right icon for fullscreen).