How a Renal Dietitian Built a Business Teaching the Skill Her Degree Missed with Stephanie Notaras
Evolving in HealthcareSummary
A dietitian's journey highlights the importance of integrating behavior change psychology into nutrition practice. Stephanie Nataris, who initially struggled with patient compliance in her early career, recognized a gap in her training regarding behavior change techniques. This realization prompted her to pursue further education, including a master's in counseling, which significantly enhanced her ability to engage clients and improve their health outcomes.
Nataris's work in a renal clinic, notorious for a high no-show rate, led to a remarkable transformation after implementing her newly developed counseling framework. She reduced the no-show rate from 50% to 5% within a year, demonstrating the effectiveness of her approach. This success garnered attention from management, resulting in the creation of an education program aimed at equipping other dietitians with similar skills, ultimately improving client retention and satisfaction.
As Nataris balances her professional growth with family life, she emphasizes the importance of making informed decisions and prioritizing tasks effectively. Her experiences underscore the evolving nature of dietetic practice and the necessity for ongoing education and adaptation to meet the changing needs of both clients and the healthcare system.
Show Notes
Most of us finish our training knowing exactly what to recommend and almost nothing about how to help someone actually do it. Stephanie Notaras noticed that gap in her first year as a dietitian, and rather than sit with it, she spent the next decade closing it. Stephanie is a renal dietitian, researcher and founder of a training business that teaches other dietitians the counselling skills their degrees skipped. This one is for anyone weighing more study, sitting on a research question that will not leave them alone, or doing the real maths of starting something while life is already full. Stephanie walks through building a framework from scratch, taking a clinic with a 50% no show rate and turning it into one patients kept returning to, and learning to speak the language of funding when good patient outcomes were not enough on their own. She is also honest about the cost: what a PhD, a business and two kids asked of her, and how she worked out what to let go. If you have ever sensed you have outgrown your job description, start here. We Explore Noticing a gap in your skill set early and deciding whether to sit with it or close it What post graduate study gives you when you do it with years of practice behind you Taking full ownership of a role you might only hold for twelve months Building something on the side without betting your livelihood on it before it is ready Staying consistent when there are no results yet to tell you it is working About Stephanie Notaras Stephanie Notaras is an Australian Accredited Practising Dietitian who specialises in renal nutrition and the behaviour change side of client care. Her PhD examines the association between seeing a dietitian and time to dialysis, along with the cost savings for the health system, work that helped grow renal dietitian funding across her district. She teaches these counselling skills to other dietitians through her own business and guest lecturing. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dietitiancounsellingskills/ Training and courses for dietitians and nutritionists: https://stephanienotaras.com/program/ Career Cliniq ResourcesIf this conversation has you weighing what your own next move might be, StreamAhead is where to start. It helps you work out what area of healthcare you best fit and what is worth pursuing before you commit time or money to it. https://careercliniq.com/streamahead Join the ConversationWhat skill did your degree never actually teach you, and how did you end up learning it? Come tell me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drruthvo/ or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drruthvo/
More from Evolving in Healthcare
Liza Barbour on planetary health, dietetics and building a career with room for yes and no Liza Barbour trained as a dietitian and now teaches planetary health to the next generation of nutritionists and dietitians at Monash University. She also runs a pickle business with her husband and works the farmers markets on weekends. Ruth Vo speaks with Liza about how she holds three kinds of work together without it draining her, and what keeps the mix feeling meaningful rather than scattered. Her view is especially useful for listeners thinking about non-clinical dietetics, transferable skills and destination roles beyond private practice or hospital work. She also speaks from lived experience of combining academic work, small business ownership and family life. We Explore: Why Liza builds her roles around energy rather than a job title How she treats remote dietetics, overseas work and academia as moves, not destinations Why saying yes early built her breadth, then became something she had to limit Why planetary health sits at the centre of her work now, and the planetary empathy she wants dietitians to carry How to get a foothold in planetary health work as a dietitian or allied health professional How shared systems at home and a team culture at work make room to be less than optimal 00:00 - Liza Barbour introduces her many hats 01:33 - Systems that keep work and family running 05:14 - Sharing the mental load at home 07:19 - Team culture, brain fog and not being optimal all the time 12:11 - Teaching in the age of artificial intelligence 13:33 - First remote dietetics role in Western Australia 18:33 - Pressure to do a PhD and waiting for the right topic 22:56 - What the PhD taught her about being a project manager 25:22 - Building Australia's first sustainable food systems unit 37:13 - Finding a North Star in climate leadership 54:00 - Where planetary health skills can lead next 57:21 - Missing client-facing community dietetics About Guest Liza Barbour is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and senior lecturer at Monash University, where she teaches planetary health, sustainable food systems and public health nutrition. Her background runs across remote and community dietetics in Australia, a year with the Ministry of Health in Tonga, and national food insecurity work at SecondBite. She also co-founded Dillicious, a small-batch pickle business on the Mornington Peninsula. Connect with Liza - https://www.linkedin.com/in/liza-barbour/ Check out her Pickle business - https://www.dillicious.com.au/ Career Cliniq Resources If this episode has you thinking about where your energy and your direction meet, StreamAhead is the place to start. https://careercliniq.com/streamahead Join the Conversation Liza guards her time against a clear North Star. What’s yours? Tell Ruth on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/drruthvo or Instagram -https://instagram.com/drruthvo
Carly Ryan spent seven years as a clinical exercise physiologist before a job assessing accreditation applications took her somewhere she never pictured. That was thirteen years, five roles and an executive seat ago, and she now leads the regulatory function at Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA). She says she fell into every one of those roles.
Ten years of clinical seniority, and Clare Batkin still chose to start again on a junior wage in a sector she knew very little about.
Plenty of capable people learn to lead by copying whoever's already in charge. It works for a while, right up until it leaves you running on someone else's fuel and still not quite yourself.
Bree Murray has never seen a patient. She'll still put "dietitian" on every form she fills in.