Curriculum

Clinical
Clinical rotations feature a one-on-one learning environment in which you will train with a registered dietitian in his/her area of expertise.

As an intern you will:

• develop the necessary skills to recognize specific disease states and conditions throughout the life cycle
• screen and evaluate patients for nutrition risk
• assess specific nutrition needs
• diagnose nutrition problems
• provide recommendations for nutrition interventions.
• apply appropriate medical nutrition therapies
• monitor and evaluate effectiveness of interventions
• disseminate accurate nutrition information to patients, families and members of the healthcare team

Clinical rotations may include, but are not limited to:

• Cardiology
• Critical care
• Medicine
• Oncology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Transplant
• Surgery

As part of your clinical experience, you will develop a working knowledge of how to adapt medical nutrition therapy to patients’ preferences and actual food. You will be introduced to numerous disease states and diagnoses and investigate principles of medical and surgical treatment in order to fully comprehend how medical nutrition therapy impacts patient care.

Management
In management rotations, interns develop skills in all facets of food and nutrition, service management and administration, from front line supervisor to department director.

You will:

• Conduct financial analyses
• Monitor patient satisfaction and performance improvement
• Become proficient in purchasing and taking inventory
• Attend department and hospital leadership meetings
• Conduct audits
• Modify recipes
• Develop menus
• Get involved in research planning and protocols
• Experience quantity food preparation

Management rotations occur in numerous environments that may include the diet office, the patient tray lines, hospital retail units, department administration, and the National Institute of Health-Funded Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Hospital Research Unit that includes a metabolic kitchen.

Community
By completing outpatient nutrition rotations, interns learn to recognize and meet the demand for nutrition education for the community, clients and healthcare professionals.

You will gain experience in disseminating nutrition information for health promotion, disease prevention and disease treatment.

Your community experience includes a rotation in the outpatient nutrition clinic, medical oncology and a variety of other outpatient clinics where you will develop nutrition counseling skills and an awareness of the reimbursement challenges in dietetics and health care today.

Participating in community health fairs, conducting group classes, responding to consumer phone calls and creating nutrition education materials are also components of your community experience. As part of the community rotations, you may be involved in various specialty clinics such as medical oncology, radiation therapy, pediatric cystic fibrosis, genetics, gastroenterology, nephrology and WIC.

You may also get a glimpse of private practice through various entrepreneurial experiences in the surrounding areas.

Special interest rotations
Interns will have the opportunity to initiate a rotation with an RD in a setting of their own choice.

This can include but is not limited to:

• Dialysis
• Long-term care
• Rehabilitation
• School food service
• Cooperative extension services
• Assisted living centers
• Sales
• Elderly feeding programs
• Food industry
• Public health
• Cardiac rehabilitation
• Private practice
• HMOs
• Clinical concentrations

Only interns who successfully demonstrate completion of ADA Core Competencies for Dietitians by passing program rotations to date are eligible. Interns will have a regularly scheduled on-call weekend. Interns are responsible for switching on-call weekends with a classmate if a special interest rotation or UNH class schedule requires the intern to be away on a normally scheduled on-call weekend.

For more information on the graduate or certificate program curriculums, visit Human Nutrition at the University of New Haven.