Dietetic professionals integrate knowledge and expertise in food, nutrition, management and people and apply their skills in a variety of settings. As the changing scene in health care has necessitated enhanced management of resources, the clinical nutrition manager (CNM) has emerged as a dietetic professional in hospitals applying sound management practices to the area of clinical nutrition services. The purpose of this study was to provide information about the position of clinical nutrition manager and about the professional development strategies used by incumbents. The research design had two phases. The purpose of the first phase was to develop a job description for the position of clinical nutrition manager, including duties/activities and job specifications for education, experience and professional credentialing. The purpose of the second phase was to verify the accuracy of the job description, determine educational and experiential resources used to develop the required skills and knowledge for performing the duties/activities, and collect other descriptive data about the position. The result was a job description for a Clinical Nutrition Manager with 46 duties/activities assigned to the position and job specifications for work experience and academic preparation. Chi square analysis was used to test the association of the performance of a duty/activity with amount of time allotted to the position; number of personnel supervised; and type of personnel supervised. Results indicated that type of personnel supervised had the most significant association. One sample chi square analysis indicated that entry-level education and entry-level experience were the less likely resources to be used for development of skills and knowledge. For more than 50% of the duties/activities, the number of resources used was significantly related to the perceived level of importance. There was no significant finding for an association between timing of career decision to become a CNM and career development strategies intentionally selected. Findings also indicated that perceived competence improves with increasing number of years in the position and is not affected by having an advanced degree. / Graduation date: 1992