Dietetic Internship - Nutrition

The Dietetic Internship is a full-time program consisting of a minimum of 38 weeks including breaks. Included are opportunities to achieve a minimum of 1,200 supervised practice hours. The program includes 15 graduate credits, a portion of which may be applied toward a master of science degree in nutrition from Bastyr University upon acceptance into the master's program.

The graduate course content is structured to complement the supervised practice components of the internship. Interns meet weekly for seminar-style classes in fall and winter quarters for the didactic portion of the program. Additional hours beyond the full-time scheduled program are required for project completion and self-preparation, some of which are supervised practice hours.

Supervised Practice

Interns gain experience in clinical dietetics, community nutrition and food service systems and management. Interns develop insight into the special nutritional needs of populations by rotating through a variety of sites which may include hospitals, community nutrition programs including WIC, outpatient clinics, and food service facilities.

The rotations are designed to give interns the opportunity to work with individuals from all stages of life, with varying health conditions. In addition to the regular rotations, interns coordinate Enrichment rotations to accommodate individual areas of interest and learning needs. Interns may expect the following timeframe of didactic and supervised practice experiences.

• Orientation – 2 weeks
• Major Group Projects – approximately 80 hours
• Bastyr Center for Natural Health - 1-2 weeks
• Required clinics to include WIC and diabetes outpatient - 5 weeks
• Various clinical and/or community nutrition experiences - 9-11 weeks
• Food Service Administration – 4 weeks
• Enrichment Rotations – 1 to 3 weeks
• Clinical Rotation – 10 weeks
• Final Evaluation Seminar – 1 week

Program Schedule

The dietetic internship begins on the first day of the regular academic calendar, which is September 24, 2020. The program ends on the last day of finals week of spring quarter, which is the third Friday of June unless otherwise noted. Within those dates the internship follows its own schedule that varies from the regular academic calendar.

Two weeks of winter vacation are scheduled at the end of December/early January, and one week of spring vacation that may fall in any month from February through May is arranged with each intern. Contact the program director for exact dates for a particular program year.

The following holidays are observed within the internship, based upon university policy: Thanksgiving and the following day; Martin Luther King Day; Presidents' Day; Memorial Day.

Expected Learning Outcomes

The Bastyr University Dietetic Internship has established the following expected learning outcomes. Graduates of the program will:

• Meet eligibility requirements to write the registration examination to become a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and subsequently will be eligible to apply to become a certified dietitian (CD) in the state of Washington (Accepted interns will receive further information about these processes in the program).
• Demonstrate all the competencies required to practice as a competent entry-level dietitian nutritionist.
• Provide exceptional nutrition and dietetic practice to individuals and institutions that effectively supports integrated healthcare, incorporating whole foods, integrative medicine perspectives, and environmental considerations into nutrition care and protocols.

Program Completion Requirements

• The dietetic internship program has adopted the achieved competency (AC) system of grading used at Bastyr University. Program completion requirements include:
• Achievement of a well-defined competence in all internship graduate classes, as evidenced by achieving a grade of AC in each class.
• Achievement of all program learning activities and performance criteria of each rotation, as evidenced by preceptor assessment on Intern performance evaluations.
• Achievement of a minimum score of 75% on the final exit exam.

Evaluations occur at the end of each rotation, and evaluation conferences are required with the program director at the end of each academic quarter.

Additional Program Information/Internship Handbook

Interns accepted into the program will receive program information the summer prior to the program start. This will include the most recent version of the Bastyr University Dietetic Internship Handbook which houses program policies and procedures. Upon program start, interns in the program will have access to an e-learning portal where all relevant program information and tools are available to them.