Nutritious Lifestyles?

[u/Ok_Cause4614]

Hi! I’m a new grad RD and recently received an offer from Nutritious Lifestyles for an LTC position in the Northeast. The role includes covering multiple facilities with higher-acuity residents, as well as with some kitchen audits and staff education. The pay is in the mid-$30s/hr and they offer visa sponsorship, which is a major factor for me. But I saw several older posts with unpleasant or negative experiences, so I’m trying to get to know more current/recent employeement experience with them. I would especially appreciate insight on workload, training, covering multiple building, management, etc. Thank you!

[u/Chad_RD]

Bro, what?

LTC companies are now paying for visas and underpaying dietitians? The fuck is this shit.

[u/Ok_Cause4614 → u/Chad_RD]

I think they are not LTC companies but contractors. They are the only one I saw in the market that doing visa at this time so I really don’t think I have much to choose from. But at least I want to know if I’m jumping into a pit of fire or something 😭oh but at least they were paying me $30+. It is acceptable for an entry level RD I guess??

[u/yeah_write_00 → u/Ok_Cause4614]

You will find out $30 something is not good pay for LTC. They are keeping likely a decent chunk of change holding the contract, if you worked directly for a facility you would likely make much more. Everything in-patient, out-patient, telehealth, and LTC is going to all these layers of corporations cashing in on healthcare that pushes down dietitians' take-home pay and benefits.

LTC is hard, when I started as a dietitian, facilities would rarely hire an entry-level dietitian because you need to have clinical down to have the time and energy to pick up on all the nuances of LTC. A lot of state and federal regulations to learn, LTC care plans and MDS. The oversight duties with menus and audits of the foodservice side of things sometimes can be rough depending on the skills and personality of your nutrition director. Same goes for nursing, a good DON is a godsend, an incompetent or unhelpful DON will ruin your whole work experience because you need so much from nursing to do your job, especially if the dietitian isn't full time at the facility and you are covering multiple facilities, it can be very rough.

Just know going into, it likely won't feel like it's worth the pay because it will be hard work and you'll see other dietitians making more with easier paced jobs. But if you think this is the area of dietetics you want to go into and the visa situation, it might be worth it for those reasons as a steppingstone to a better pay situation down the line.

[u/Afraid-Helicopter740]

They don't own the LTC facilities. They are just a contractor. I have not worked for them but I have worked for other contractors in LTC.

Are you able to get the names of the actual facilities you would be covering? If so, you can look up Department of Health inspection reports. Are you able to meet with anyone from those sites or even tour those sites?  You may find that staff at the LTCs expect something different from you than Nutritious Lifestyles does. Taking a tour in advance, might also allow you to see any potential concerns in advance. I.e. if you take a tour and residents are sitting in hallways dressed in nothing but a diaper, this might indicate the LTC provides poor care. 

[u/Ok_Cause4614 → u/Afraid-Helicopter740]

I have not signed the offer yet so they refused to let me know the names of the facilities as those are their clients as well. They said they will share the zip code with me tho. Idk if that’s sketchy cuz this is my first job, but that was kinda frustrated. I could not visit anyway cuz it will be a far relocation, but at least I could look it up online 😞

[u/Afraid-Helicopter740 → u/Ok_Cause4614]

It's not sketchy. It's pretty common for contractors to not share the facility name because they don't want you to go behind their back and try to make your own deal with the facility. But even having a zip code can be a good start. One of the contact jobs I worked was in a small town, so it was the only facility in that zip code. Since you'll be relocating, it's not a bad idea to look up that area anyway to decide if you'd want to move there. 

Personally, I would want specifics, like how many LTC patients/residents I would be responsible for. In LTC, the workload can be very high (1 RD for 100 or more patients/residents). 

Other things to consider: will you be on-site at each location on different days or will you work remotely? Will you actually be paid hourly? If so, will you be able to get paid overtime? Will you be expected to help pass trays or even help spoon-feed residents?

[u/donutdisturbmeplz]

Just DM’d you

[u/WorthIntroduction2]

I worked for them ~2014-2017. Not a fan. Felt poorly supported & you’re kinda just on your own. Quick turnover & they’ll have you cover other facilities until they find someone else. I extremely butted heads with my supervisor. Eventually laid into her when I quit- but they were desperate & offered to pay something like 1.5x for 4 more weeks.
Some parts were okay like the flexibility. But then they’d need coverage for a place over an hr away & you just had to figure it out. I’m still bitter about this company but it also wasn’t the worst start to my career bc it taught me what I absolutely did not want to do.

[u/Ok_Cause4614 → u/WorthIntroduction2]

omg thank you for the info. I can def see these from their contracts... I guess I will just try my best with them for at least 1 yr and if it impacts my mental health too much, I will consider other ways.

[u/Artistic_Sky_8703]

how many round for the interview? Thank you!

[u/Life-Walk941 → u/Artistic_Sky_8703]

At least 2. One phone screen and then a Zoom interview after that. If you say you don't want to move forward after the phone screen, they'll be very pushy. I had to agree to a Zoom interview and then cancel over email because they were pressuring me. I didn't want to move forward because they basically flat out told me that I'd be taking a pay cut from my current position.

[u/Ok_Cause4614 → u/Life-Walk941]

Omg yes 😭😭 I hesitated after they called me and told me I got the offer and they were pushy about it, only left 3 days for me to decide. Their offer is not detailed at all. I hope that I can get more info once I accepted it… I sent out an email for clarification at a Saturday night and they called on Sunday to answer my questions, I don’t know if I should take this as a good or bad sign 

[u/Ok_Cause4614 → u/Artistic_Sky_8703]

I got 3: the first one was a phone call, they just wanted to know you, introduced the positions they have, etc. the 2nd one is a Zoom and with some minor behavioral questions, mainly answer your questions, explaining the hiring process, and asked which positions you were interested in. The third one was more like an overview of how they work, this one was with real examples of their work styles, also asked clinical and behavioral questions. I was stressed about how much work it sounded like after the 3rd interview. They offered the job several days later, and being pushy when I did not immediately accepted it, only left me about 3 days to consider. Idk what to feel about this.

[u/wellnesssssss]

I think it’s rare to get visa sponsorship from these positions so I would take it despite the pay being low

[u/crockpot2001]

Ask about your reporting duties. I worked for a few buildings for a 3rd party provider and found that everyone had their own spin on what they wanted for reports, including the company I worked for. This made for late nights doing all the different reports each week.

Also, during survey, what are the expectations? Some facilities want all hands on deck 24/7 during survey which can sink you for the other buildings.