Every great recipe combines just the right ingredients… Not too much, not too little. Mixed to perfection. Resulting in something delicious and nutritious. When you get it right you just know it. We all have our favorites. We share them. We count on them time after time. They don’t let us down. If everything we did could be so reliable.
Great nutrition communicators are created, not born. Semester after semester in my nutrition communications course at Purdue, students would start the class with fear and dread. Gaining confidence was their number one goal. Year in and year out, students not only ended the semester with greater confidence, they took that confidence with them into internships, graduate school, and the workplace. They proudly wrote back sharing their successes as nutrition communicators:
“I wanted to thank you for how much your class has done for me. My thesis advisor told me she has never seen a student seem so prepared and at ease in front of a crowd.” Kristin Redfearn, during MS internship program at Rush University in Chicago.
The Registered Dietitian Nutritionist is the Nutrition Expert… but without effective communication skills the RDN’s expertise will have little impact. As RDNs we want to make a difference.
What combination of ingredients – knowledge, skills, strategies, creativity, perspective, practical experiences, and more – can create a confident and effective nutrition communicator? Where can you get the ingredients you are missing to be the nutrition communicator you desire to be?
NutritionCommunicator.com will help RDNs become great communicators. NutritionCommunicator.com wants to become your source for continuing education, resources, and coaching – to help RDNs become confident and effective nutrition communicators. It will provide the tools needed to master the art and science of creating and communicating compelling, audience-centered, evidence-based messages that inspire optimal nutrition and health.
What do YOU need to become a more effective and confident nutrition communicator? Over the upcoming months, as CE courses are developed and added to the website, this blog will seek to answer your most burning questions and discuss communication skills and strategies you want covered. I am also seeking stories that feature real life nutrition communicators to inspire others to try out new skills. Please visit the "Our Community" page and write your story. We are working on an updated version of that tool and invite your recommendations. You may join our email list to be first to know what is happening. Together we will build a community of nutrition communicators that support and provide feedback to one another. Please share in the comments your ideas and questions.
