Program Overview

Internship and Health System Mission

The internship mission is to provide a broad-based, comprehensive dietetics education in both traditional and emerging settings with a focus in medical nutrition therapy. Our program's mission is in accordance with the mission of the University of Virginia Health System: To enrich the quality of human life by improvement of health, by advancement of medical and scientific knowledge, and by creation of an environment for professional preparation for individuals dedicated to health care service. 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 8 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 and at a psychiatric facility.
  2. Classes - Dietetic interns attend their clinical, community or administrative rotations 4 days a week and attend class 1 day a week, usually on Wednesdays. 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. Classes are also available in the area of administrative and community dietetics as well as classes in computer based publication, presentations and data entry for research or administrative purposes using spreadsheets.
  3. Interns will be given optional days where they can pursue training in community areas of interest within the community or in another pre-approved area of choice.
  4. 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 in a variety of areas including Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel.
  5. Interns are given 10 days of vacation. Five days are scheduled in December during the holiday season while the other 5 days are scheduled in the spring.