Would having a registered dietitian be a good idea for my clients to refer to?
Yes. As a fitness professional, you should be part of your client’s health team. As a team member you need to communicate with the other members of the team. While you may only comtact any one member of the team once or twice a year, it is still important to keep the lines of communication open. For every client you should have at least asked the client to request information fron involved team members such as primary care physician, surgeons, physical therapists, etc. The information should definitely include clearance to exercise, recommended activity level or intensity of exercise, medications (and you should check the effects of these medications on exercise response and daily life in general), contraindicated activity/exercise, and any other pertinent information depending on the client’s health status (ie. diabetic, brain injury, other cognitive impairment. substance abuse, etc., all have a wide variety of different exercise related responses and impacts on health/well being). You should know at least one local physician and one registered dietician who are willing to see referred clients. Networking with other health professionals will depend on the types of clients that you are working with at any one time. Hopefully this type of interaction with a broad spectrum of health professionals will encourage you to pursue educational opportunities to improve your skills and abilities so that the other team members will see you as a valuable part of the healthcare community and thus feel confident in referring clients to you as well.