St. Louis VAMC Dietetic Internship Program
The Dietetic Internship Program
The St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs Dietetic Internship Program is a 43-week program offering well rounded rotation experiences in health promotion and disease treatment with a concentration in recognizing and reducing health disparities. Our program prepares entry level dietitians to work in a variety of dietetics settings in increasingly diverse environments. The educational experiences of classes and rotations focus on developing values, interrelationships and management of resources to prepare the practitioner to assist others in meeting the challenges of their social and physical environments. The curriculum encourages the development of a disciplined mind, critical and creative thought, skills in human relations and communications, flexibility as well as professional and cultural competence.
Orientation
Orientation begins the middle of August. Interns receive an overview of the DVA, its facilities, the Nutrition and Foodservice Program, the internship and its activities. A tour of both divisions and meetings with other health care team members are scheduled. Discussions are based on the philosophy of learning, the interns' role as a professional-in-training and location of resources available to interns. Initial classes on skills needed for patient care are also included.
Curriculum
Area of Concentration: Our concentration in recognizing and reducing health disparities helps students recognize personal biases that may affect patient and client care and also emphasizes the importance of communication skills and cultural competence skills in reducing health disparities. Interns will advance knowledge of individual, population, and environmental factors that contribute to health disparities and will learn how to advocate for policies aimed at reducing health disparities. Through class discussion, rotation experiences and assignments, and a health disparities research project, interns will improve knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to work effectively with diverse patient and community populations.
Clinical rotations make up the largest portion of the internship’s 43-week program. The clinical experience is divided into several rotations that provide interns both broad based and in-depth experiences in nutritional care. General rotations include medicine, geriatrics/rehab, outpatient counseling, and psychiatry. Specialty areas include renal, diabetes clinics, pediatrics, spinal cord injury, home care, and nutrition support. The finale is when you assume responsibility for the duties of a clinical dietitian in Clinical Staff Experience.
Administrative rotations are planned to provide interns with a variety of food service systems management experiences. Rotations include food production and procurement, food service systems, personnel management, and administrative experience. Interns will complete a menu enhancement or implementation of a new product for our hospital based population as well as complete an administrative project for the medical center.
Community rotations include rotations with Operation Food Search, WIC, School Community Outreach, and an employee wellness program. In addition to these planned community experiences, interns will also be given several opportunities to participate in community wellness and culinary programs ranging from an after school program for overweight children and adolescents to teaching classes in the community and assisting with cooking demonstrations. Throughout the course of the internship, interns will also visit a variety of community settings as an arranged field trip on a class day.
Graduate courses are not part of the curriculum.
Program Completion -
Program completion is reached when the intern has satisfied all learning objectives within established levels of performance. Successful completion fulfills requirements for membership in the American Dietetic Association. Graduates are eligible to take the registration examination for dietitians.
Accreditation
The program is currently granted continued Accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education of the American Dietetic Association (CADE).
Address:
Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education of the American Dietetic Association
120 S Riverside Plaza, Suite 2000
Chicago, IL 60606-6995
Telephone: (312) 899-0040 or (800) 877-1600
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