They help promote good health through proper eating. They also supervise the preparation and service of food, develop modified diets, participate in research, and educate individuals and groups on good nutritional habits. The goals of the dietary department are to obtain, prepare, and serve flavorsome, attractive, and nutritious food to patients, family members, and health care providers.

Nutrition professionals include registered dietitians (RD) and dietetic technician, registered (DTR). Some RDs or DTRs call themselves nutritionists. However, some people who may call themselves a nutritionist are not registered dietitians. Sometimes the word dietitian is spelled as dietician.

Only certain countries, such as America have dietetic technicians. Dietetics technicians are not the same as dietitians in terms of responsibilities and qualifications.

The majority of dietitians are clinical, or therapeutic, dietitians. Clinical dietitians review medical charts and talk with patients' families. They work with other health care professionals and community groups to provide nourishment, nutritional programs, and instructional presentations to benefit people of all ages, and with a variety of health conditions. This is accomplished by developing individual plans to meet nutritional needs. These plans include nourishment, tube feedings (called enteral nutrition), intravenous feedings (called parenteral nutrition) such as total parenteral nutrition (TPN), diets, and education. Clinical dietitians provide individual and group educational programs for patients and family members about their nutrition and health.

A qualified registered Dietitian can undertake roles such as;

Clinical dietitians work in hospitals to provide medical nutrition therapy to patients according to the disease processes provides individual inpatient and outpatient dietary consultations to patients and their family members and also conduct group educations for other health workers, patients and the public. They work as a team with the physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, social workers and nurses to provide care to the patients.