Dietetic Internship Program
VA Caribbean Healthcare System (San Juan)
The VA Caribbean Healthcare System Dietetic Internship Program is 47 weeks long (1,880 hours). The program is full-time (40 hours/week) and begins annually in August.
The dietetic interns are four days in the rotations (32 hours/week) and one day (8 hours/week) in Learning Activity Days (i.e., planned didactic class activities, projects). The interns take one week (40 hours) of vacation between the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Clinical Rotations (26 weeks)
- Clinical Dietetic Technician (1 week)
- Medicine (3 weeks)
- Acute Behavioral Health Inpatient Care Unit (ABHICU) (1 week)
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (1 week)
- Oncology (2 weeks)
- General Surgery, Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Parenteral Nutrition (2 weeks)
- Spinal Cord Injury and Related Disorders (2 weeks)
- Intensive Care/Critical Care Unit (2 weeks)
- Hospice Care (1 week)
- Community Living Center (1 week)
- Home Based Primary Care (1 week)
- Hemodialysis (2 weeks)
- Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) (2 weeks)
- Social Media & Video Production (1 week)
- Women's Clinic/Home Telehealth (1 week)
- Geriatric Clinic (1 week)
- Cardiology Clinic (1 week)
- Metabolic Clinic (1 week)
- Food Service Administration and Purchasing (3 weeks)
- Menu Planning and Quality Monitoring (3 weeks)
- Commercial Cafeteria (2 weeks)
- Leadership and Clinical Management (2 weeks)
- Pediatric (1 week)
- Sport Nutrition (1 week)
- WIC (1 week)
- Research week (1 week)
- Orientation (first week in the program) (3 weeks)
- Vacation (Christmas break) (1 week)
- Professional Dietetic Experience/Staff Relief (3 weeks)
Projects and other learning activities:
- Research Study
- In-depth Clinical Case Study
- Clinical Seminars
- International Food Seminar
- Sustainable Food Service Project
- Articles for magazines, or social media
- Cooking Demonstration and Healthy Teaching Cooking
- Podcast Recording
- National Nutrition Month
- Public Policy Project
- Retail Dietitian (visit)