Program Overview

Internship and Health System Mission

The internship mission is: 

To provide students with a comprehensive nutrition and dietetics education through the promotion of innovative and evidence-based patient care; the education of patients, clients, health care professionals, and the community; and the creation and sharing of nutrition knowledge.

Our program's mission is in accordance with the mission of the University of Virginia Health System:  

To provide excellence and innovation in the care of patients, the training of health professionals and the creation and sharing of health knowledge.

The Health System offers excellent opportunities for professional training in the medical and health care fields. Our staff/student ratio provides the opportunity for each intern to work closely with clinical nutritionists, health care staff and managers.

Program Highlights

  1. Rotations-Interns have between 19-22 weeks of clinical rotations with well-trained nutritionists in a variety of specialty areas. They also have eight weeks of training in food service and clinical management. Interns spend between 8-10 weeks in community rotations and affiliations including public health, clinical research, inborn errors of metabolism, nutrition and health promotion and long term care.
  2. Classes - Dietetic interns attend their clinical, community or administrative rotations 4 days a week and attend class one day a week, usually on Wednesdays. Class days consist of five didactic hours and individual classes are conducted by clinical nutritionists and managers as well as by a number of health care professionals including physicians, nurses, clinical pharmacists and therapists. Classes are held on a variety of topics including pathophysiology and nutritional management of a variety of life stages and diagnoses. The UVAHS internship provides a rigorous and challenging didactic learning component along with supervised practice in order to fully prepare interns to move from the "pre-professional" to competent entry level RDs.
  3. Community Volunteerism and Leadership - Interns will have the opportunity to hone their leadership, community service, and public speaking skills through active involvement with organizations in the Charlottesville community. Interns are required to give or be involved in 4 nutrition-related presentations or activities. Examples include working with the UVA Celiac Support Group, talking with senior citizens about good nutrition, or presenting an interactive session to middle school kids.
  4. Interns will be scheduled for an "affiliation week" where they can pursue training in areas of interest within the community or in another pre-approved area of choice.
  5. Interns have complete access to the UVA Health Sciences Library, the main library and their computer systems. Students receive comprehensive library orientation including: conducting a Medline search, and computer classes on an as needed basis.
  6. Interns complete online tests as part of the didactic portion of the programs. Interns are expected to sign an honor code and abide by this code when completing online exams and other assignments.
  7. Interns are given 15 days of vacation. Ten days are scheduled in December during the holiday season while the other five days are scheduled in the spring. Interns are also given holidays for Thanksgiving and Memorial Day.