Clinical dieticians

Steno Diabetes Center has four clinical dieticians. They work with diabetes teams in the outpatient clinic, the type 2 clinic, the outpatient pregnancy care clinic, the youth clinic, the diabetes unit in Rigshospitalet and the outpatient ward.

The aim of the work:
Individual nutrition counselling of persons with diabetes to advise on balancing food, physical exercise and insulin in everyday life and at social events with a view to securing optimal wellbeing. The advice given to people with diabetes must take account of personal preferences and lifestyle. Nutritional guidance is based on the recommendations issued by the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DNSG) of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Work areas
The major part of the work concerns giving individual nutritional advice to patients during one-to-one consultations at the outpatient clinic.
A dietician is attached to each diabetes care team. This means that patients can be offered a closely monitored dietary programme for a short period, and/or a consultation with the dietician if needed.

The dieticians also take part in the so-called special programmes, e.g. hypertension or dyslipidaemia, where the team collaborates on the treatment.
In the type 2 clinic, the dieticians review patients’ food and exercise habits and help set individual dietary management targets, which are followed up by patients attending courses or individual consultations. The dieticians and nurses collaborate to achieve optimal diabetes management.
The dieticians have weekly morning consultations at the diabetes unit at Rigshospitalet.  The outpatient pregnancy care clinic, the youth clinic and the insulin pump clinic all have a fulltime dietician attached to them. The dieticians participate in multidisciplinary arrangements targeted towards treatment or education.