My State Bans PTs from Providing Nutrition. What Do I Do?

 By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, CNPT® , NSCA-CPT, Cert-DN

So you’ve looked into several online courses for nutrition in the hopes of helping your patient get better, faster. As you are scouring these online classes you stumble across the fact that you, as a physical therapist (PT), cannot provide nutrition in your state. Seriously? Is this true? Maybe. So, should you simply drop the idea of enrolling into a certification course on nutrition -- absolutely not!

 It should be made very clear that any healthcare provider can offer nutritional information for general health. Whether you call yourself a nutritionist, CNPT® , or health coach, offering generalized health and wellness nutrition information is permitted for almost every state. Such a rationale makes perfect sense: we need people in our country eating better food for better health. The legal issue really comes when you...

Can PTs Give Nutrition Advice? 

By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, CNPT, ATC/L, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, Cert-DN

Over the past decade physical therapists (PTs) have been branding themselves as “movement specialists” and “experts in exercise.” Much of this branding has come from the help of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), as well as the advancement of the entry-level PT degree from Masters to Doctorate (DPT). With a new image and education, PTs are even better positioned to be in primary care, prevention, wellness, and many other settings other than simple outpatient clinics and hospitals. Despite such a push for new branding and education, a burning questions still exists within the physical therapy profession: can PTs give nutrition advice?

What the Profession Says

Such was the topic during the Oxford Debate at last year’s (2018) APTA Next Conference in Orlando, FL. I was fortunate enough to be in the crowd and enjoy some...

Top 3 Nutrition Tips PTs can Give their Clients

By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, CNPT, Cert-DN

Physical therapists (PTs) are unique healthcare providers that are positioned to have a major impact on the healthcare systems. PTs are now doctorally prepared, trained in differential diagnoses and imaging, and work with clients directly from the street (e.g. direct access). More importantly PTs often see clients sometimes daily or at least several times per week, depending on the client issue and clinical setting. As such, PTs can be utilized as a major agent of change for health and wellness, and one of the ways they can do this is through nutrition!

One major barrier, as we have highlighted in other articles, for PTs to offer nutrition advice is their education. Another limitations for many PTs is time. A PT may ask: how can I juggle all of these clinical pieces, notes, and still talk about nutrition with my clients? Well, our team at Nutritional Physical...

How to Integrate Nutrition in PT Practice

By Dr. Sean M. Wells, DPT, PT, OCS, ATC/L, CSCS, CNPT, NSCA-CPT, Cert-DN

Many physical therapists (PTs) seeking continuing education courses for manual therapy, specialized modalities, and new exercises, feel comfortable with the content before enrolling in the course. Afterall, most PTs had exposure to some, if not all, of these concepts in PT school and in practice. But what about nutrition training?

Like medical doctors the majority of DPTs today and nearly all of the graduate PTs with MS and BS degrees received little to no education in nutrition. Understandably this lack of knowledge leaves a riff in clinical practice and a desire to learn more to help a patient.

So, let’s dive into some ways for physical therapists to integrate PT into their practice. 

#1 Get The Basics

Understanding the basic components of nutrition is a must. Many clinicians think they must enroll in advanced online courses for supplementation,...