Essential Training for an Essential Role: Dietitians and Eating Disorder Care

Dietitians are critical members of the multidisciplinary eating disorder treatment team. Dietitians frequently encounter clients with undiagnosed or undisclosed eating disorders; however, many graduate dietitians lack specialised eating disorder training. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Dietitian Essentials eLearning program to increase dietitians' self-reported knowledge, skills, and confidence to treat clients with eating disorders.

Health professionals (N = 613) consented to participate in the evaluation between January 2019 and March 2025. Change in self-reported pre- and post-training knowledge, skills, confidence, and willingness to treat eating disorders were analysed using paired-sample t-tests (N = 438), and differences by remoteness of work setting and years of eating disorder clinical experience were assessed with repeated measures ANOVA. Feedback on program feasibility, acceptability, and most and least helpful aspects of the course were collected.

Participants were mostly dietitians working in generalist settings with less than 2 years of experience working with eating disorders, however 80% reported they were currently treating clients with eating disorders. Large post-training improvements (Cohen's d = 0.9-1.7) were observed across all learning outcomes, with the largest gains for treatment-specific knowledge and professional issues. Dietitians with the least eating disorder clinical experience showed the greatest improvements.

Dietitian Essentials meets a critical workforce training gap for dietitians by providing dietitian-specific eating disorder training which is essential to safe clinical practice. Dietitians are often the first responders for eating disorder care-equipping community dietitians with core competencies may facilitate earlier identification and contribute to minimising harm and improving outcomes for this at-risk population.