It is a privilege to have a guest blog post from Maree Ferguson, the Director of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.  She developed the innovative Malnutrition Screening Tool to identify patients at risk of malnutrition, and it has been implemented in hospitals worldwide. Maree is also the founder of Dietitian Connection, a one stop shop for nutrition leaders. You can check out www.dietitianconnection.com for more!!

“I was fortunate to enter the research world very early in my career.  After I finished my degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, I was privileged to be awarded a Spotless Catering scholarship to complete my PhD at Queensland University of Technology.  I had the incredible opportunity to follow in the footsteps of dietitians Judy Bauer and Merrilyn Banks to continue research in the area of malnutrition screening.  With the support of my supervisors, Professor Sandra Capra, Judy and Merrilyn, we developed the Malnutrition Screening Tool.

I highly recommend completing a PhD and/or having a career in research.  Research opened many doors for me including a fabulous job opportunity with Abbott Nutrition in the USA.  In addition, I was able to travel to many amazing cities around the world to present the outcomes of my research.  I have also worked with some incredible dietitians and other health professionals on numerous research projects that have led to significant improvements in patient care.
In 2012, I founded Dietitian Connection, The Essential Link for Nutrition Leaders, which is the one stop shop for busy nutrition professionals for evidence based nutrition information, handy resources, exciting job opportunities, upcoming events, new products, latest news and more.

I wanted to create a hub for nutrition professionals to connect with each other and to the latest evidence based nutrition research and news.  There are so many sources of nutrition information and professionals don’t have time to review the overwhelming volume of nutrition news or decipher which sources are credible.  Dietitian Connection provides a weekly e-newsletter to keep busy professionals up-to-date on the latest nutrition news.

Here’s what others are saying about Dietitian Connection:
“Loving this new website for dietitians called Dietitian Connection. Great work by Maree Ferguson for providing a one stop shop for busy nutrition professionals to access the latest nutrition news and research” Jemma O’Hanlon
“Maree has produced a website, newsletter and service to dietitians, informing them of news, events, products, jobs and resources. It’s free to join. Sign up for the newsletter because it is a wonderful weekly alert system for information you won’t always find elsewhere. It is for dietitians only, so you know it is relevant to you.” Glenn Cardwell
“Am loving Dietitian Connection, it is like the Nine MSN for dietitians!” Megan Rossi

Want to become a member of Dietitian Connection? You can register for FREE to receive the following benefits:
• Weekly email newsletter with the latest nutrition news and research
• Add your profile under the Directory section so that other dietitians can connect with you
• Add events, webinars and seminars under the Events section
• Add for sale/lease items, services and surveys under the Classifieds section
• Add jobs or your locum/volunteer profile under the Jobs section
• Favourite content in the resources and products section”

For videos of Maree talking about her career in dietetics, check out our video page .