Dietetic Internship Program
VA St. Louis Health Care System Dietetic Internship
Program Curriculum
During the supervised practice, we combine educational classes and workshops with hands-on rotations. Our focus includes promoting health, developing MNT skills for disease prevention and treatment, refining counseling and presentation skills, building interpersonal relationships, and identifying resources to help interns assist patients with healthcare challenges. The curriculum fosters a disciplined mind, critical thinking, creativity, human relations skills, communication, flexibility, professionalism, and advocacy.
General Curriculum Details
- The VA St. Louis Health Care System Dietetic Internship (VASTLHCS DI) curriculum is developed by the program director with input from all preceptors and staff. The program is reviewed annually by a Curriculum Committee which has representation every part of the department.
- The supervised practice portion of the program is 42 weeks long including one week of orientation and one week of paid vacation.
- Interns will rotate at both the John Cochran Medical Center and the Jefferson Barracks divisions of the VA St. Louis Health Care System (VASTLHCS), in addition to VA Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) and affiliate sites in the St. Louis community.
- As a VA intern, you'll serve our nation's heroes by providing care to adults, both men and women, from their 20s to older adulthood.
Orientation
Orientation will begin in mid-August. Interns receive an overview of the VA, its facilities, including the Nutrition and Food Service department. Details about policies, rotations, projects, and activities will be provided, along with resources and tools for success. You will tour both facilities, have the opportunity to meet and bond with your fellow interns, be introduced to staff, and generally be welcomed to the VASTLHCS.
Rotations
Clinical (22 weeks)*
- An emphasis will be placed on learning the Nutrition Care Process (NCP), providing Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT), developing skills in Nutrition Focused Physical Exams (NFPE), and working to identify and treat malnutrition.
- At Jefferson Barracks, interns will rotate through the Spinal Cord Injury Unit, mental health wards, and substance abuse and domiciliary programs. You will spend time working in our Community Living Center caring for Veterans as the recover from illness and injury and those in our inpatient hospice unit.
- At our John Cochran division, interns will focus on providing MNT to Veterans with acute medical needs in our intensive care units in addition to our general medicine and cardiology wards.
- Interns will be exposed to a variety of outpatient nutrition opportunities including primary care, hemodialysis, and oncology care. You will see patients in their home as part of our Home Based Primary Care program, teach classes as part of our Health Promotion Disease Prevention rotation, and learn about integrative and functional nutrition and complementary care as part of our Whole Health rotation.
- Interns will observe nasogastric tube placements and speech therapy evaluations including modified barium swallows. There may be the opportunity to observe other medical procedures including GI-related surgeries or cardiac procedures.
- Interns collaborate with other health care professionals participating in medical and wound rounds and presenting their patients during interdisciplinary team (IDT) meetings.
- Interns learn to use a unified health communication approach to provide nutrition counseling to Veterans both in-person and virtually.
- Each clinical rotation will provide a 1:1 preceptor to intern experience.
- As a final clinical rotation, interns spend four weeks in staff experience. This ultimate confidence-builder is designed for the dietetics intern to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and ability to work as an entry-level dietitian upon graduation. In this rotation you will assume full responsibility for the duties of a dietitian in an area of your choice.
Administration (7 weeks)*
- The Administrative/Management rotation provides interns with a variety of managerial experiences, including food procurement and production, food dining service using VA's advanced food prep, the Veteran Canteen Service’s (VCS) commercial food service operation, and managing a robust team of clinical staff.
- Interns work in pairs to plan and supervise a themed meal, develop marketing plans, analyze menus, complete a waste QI project, teach in-service classes, create labor schedules, conduct chart audits, and analyze data for a quarterly patient satisfaction report.
Community (7 weeks)*
- Interns will rotate through community affiliates, addressing nutrition care and witnessing the impact of food insecurity and social determinants on health.
- During community rotations, interns will complete health assessments, develop Medically Tailored Meals for a Food Is Medicine Coalition program, create social media posts, assist with food distribution, and teach nutrition and cooking classes to a variety of population groups of all ages.
- Interns will conduct nutrition assessments, provide nutrition counseling, and develop patient centered goals for clients of Women Infant Children (WIC). At another local agency you provide nutritional support and care for men, women, and children living with HIV and cancer.
- Interns will spend a week focused on health literacy. Learning the ins and outs of 508 compliance and best practices in writing patient/client education materials.
*Rotation specifics could vary based on staffing and patient availability.
Didactic class days
- Didactic class days are held weekly to enhance and support intern learning. Class days are designed to prepare interns for their various rotations, explore other topics and influences on the field of dietetics, and allow time for individual and group project work.
- Interns attend a mini-Advocacy Workshop to prepare them for attending the Missouri Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Legislative Day in Jefferson City, the Missouri state capitol.
- Special class topics and workshops (subject to change) include professional ethics, nutrition-focused physical exams, wound care, diabetes technology, nutrition support, health promotion, sports nutrition, eating disorders, pediatric nutrition, integrative and functional nutrition, motivational interviewing, and many more!
- Job preparation begins in the spring with workshops on resume writing and performance-based interviewing.
- Several class days are dedicated to preparing and practicing for the registration exam.
Program projects
- Interns complete various projects throughout the course of their internship. These projects are designed to provide interns with a well-rounded experience by completing assignments that registered dietitians also complete as professionals.
- These projects help interns develop their professional writing, presentation, and professional networking skills.
- Interns present both a journal club and clinical case study to fellow interns and dietetic staff. They write newsletters which are distributed throughout the country by VCS, develop their first Professional Development Portfolio (PDP), and host a nutrition booth at the annual Employee Well-Being fair.
