Dietetic Internship, Further Explained

The previous post looked at the dietetic internship (DI) as a supervised practice program. This post will examine who's doing the supervising. In my case, it's a joint effort between the University of Minnesota and The Emily Program (UMN-TEP).

Who runs a dietetic internship?

Health care facilities and universities are prime candidates for a DI. For example, in Minnesota, DIs are headquartered in the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Concordia College, and Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester. Every DI is coordinated by a full-time program director, who sets up the curriculum, schedules rotations, keeps in touch with the preceptors, and so much more.

I mentioned in the previous post that each DI has competencies in clinical, community, and food service. In addition, each DI has an emphasis. Emphases range from more of the same (Food Service or Community) to something different: Disease Prevention/Health Promotion, Information Technology, Sports Nutrition, and so on.

UMN-TEP is the first DI in the nation to have an Eating Disorders emphasis. Many DIs include eating disorders in their curriculum, whether on an inpatient basis or by sending interns to an outpatient facility like the Melrose Institute for a couple of weeks. In this DI, however, we interns get a full nine weeks in eating disorders by cycling through the adult and adolescent facilities and various outpatient programs at The Emily Program. I am currently three weeks into this rotation.

So there you have it, a rough sketch of what the dietetic internship is all about. Questions?

Dietetic Internship, Explained

I've come to realize that the name "dietetic internship" leads some people to think of summer-long affairs of tedious work. And when I mention The Emily Program, some think I'll be working there for the duration. So it's time to clear up what exactly I'm doing for the next eight months.

What is a dietetic internship?

A dietetic internship is a supervised practice program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE) whose completion is required to write the national examination  administered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR), which, when passed, earns you the Registered Dietitian (RD) credential.

Without the alphabet soup:  internship → exam → credentials! 

This program must provide at least 1200 hours of supervised practice in Foundation Knowledge and Competencies, which cover cover all dietetics practice functions (clinical, community, foodservice). Competencies look like this:

DI 3.1 Perform the Nutrition Care Process and use standardized nutrition language for individuals, groups and populations of differing ages and health status, in a variety of settings

And this:

DI 4.2 Perform management functions related to safety, security and sanitation that affect employees, customers, patients, facilities and food
DI 4.4 Participate in public policy activities, including both legislative and regulatory initiatives

Mastering all these "upon completion of the DI, graduates are able tos" requires a good deal of observing RDs in their natural environments; i.e., hospitals, foodservice settings, nonprofits, WIC, and more. It also includes a healthy dose of projects, such as designing a themed meal, presenting on a nutrition topic to a group, charting, presenting case studies, pricing out a menu and completing nutrition care plans.

So there's the DI in a nutshell. Next up: What does The Emily Program have to do with it? (If you can't stand the suspense, click here.)