Selecting Specialties

Dietitians are required to select specialties to facilitate matching with patients. When scheduling an appointment with a Nourish dietitian, patients select specialties and are then matched with providers depending on specialty and availability compatibility.

It is critical to select specialties which accurately reflect your clinical expertise to ensure optimal patient and provider experience.

1. Go to your Provider Portal

2. Click Settings on the lefthand sidebar

3. Scroll down to Specialties & click Select Specialties

4. Add or remove orange check mark for specialty selection & click Add Specialties to save

5. After specialties are selected, designate ⭐ or ⭐⭐ specialty status

   • One star (⭐): You are competent & proficient in seeing a patient who selects this specialty only

   • Two star (⭐⭐): You are a true expert in this field and have experience successfully treating many patients who select this specialty

   • When signing up for Nourish, all patients are asked to select a primary concern. This primary concern is then prioritized by matching with the two star specialty.

5. Click orange Save Changes button on righthand side

Answer YES to the following before choosing a specialty

• Can you confidently treat this patient when seeing them for this specialty ONLY?

• Do you have successful treatment or experience of this specialty in the past?

• Are you comfortable with seeing 25% of your caseload in this specialty?

• Can you see this specialty without a high level of clinical support?

For the best patient care, avoid patients on your schedule becoming ‘test patients’. Do not select specialties if:

• You are interested in learning more about this specialty, but do not have experience treating patients with this specialty yet.

• You want to test your skills in the specialty

If you are interested in furthering your knowledge of specific specialties, please utilize our continued education benefit, Clinical Pathways, Clinical Reference Guides and Case Review and Collaboration meetings to increase competence prior to selecting.

• How many specialties should I have?

  • There is no requirement for number of specialties as it is important to be comfortable and competent with each specialty you choose.

• Should I chose the general specialty, or sub-specialty?

  • When reviewing specialties, there can be a general specialty with several sub-specialties within it. When selecting, it is best practice to choose based on the following:

    • Choose the general specialty when competent with all or majority of subspecialties within.

    • Choose sub specialty ONLY when this is the primary diagnoses you are competent with

    Example: If an RD selects Gut Health as a specialty, they should be competent and comfortable treating patients with SIBO, IBS, GERD, Ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. If the RD is only competent and comfortable with SIBO & IBS, then the RD should choose those two sub specialties instead of Gut Health.

• Can I transfer patients that are not a good match?

  • Transferring patients is still possible; however, feedback has shown that this is not the best patient or provider experience. It is best practice to match them to the appropriate provider the first time around to limit the need for transfers.

• How do I learn about a specialty if I am not seeing those patients?

  • At Nourish, we encourage continued professional development & growth for dietitians and aim to provide the following peer and individual learning opportunities to support this goal for all employees:

    • Continued education benefit

    • Clinical Pathways and Clinical Reference Guides

    • Specialized Case Review and Collaboration meetings

    • RD Slack community