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The University of Virginia Nutrition Support Traineeship is a unique opportunity to achieve a higher level of practice in nutrition support. The one-week clinical experience is designed to provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based information, in a practical, hands-on setting. The emphasis is on the adult patient who requires enteral and/or parenteral nutrition support in the acute care setting, but includes planning for the transition home on nutrition support. Participants are on-site for five days, and the traineeship is limited to two to four people at a time in order to allow individual attention, and to meet the specific learning goals of each professional. Experiences are tailored to include time spent observing and participating in completing nutrition support consults, nutrition team rounds, review of syllabus modules, case studies, small group discussions, and to allow ample time to answer questions.
All trainees receive a comprehensive syllabus that addresses nutrition assessment, monitoring, critical care nutrition, enteral and parenteral nutrition, fluid, electrolytes, acid-base, interpreting/evaluating medical research, and more. The modules are fully referenced, based on current evidence-based literature, and provide a template for education at the bedside (See Syllabus Outline). The core modules are sent to participants before they arrive, so they have a chance to read in advance and start to formulate questions before the week begins.
Our goal is to individualize the traineeship experience as much as possible to the needs of each participant, along with optimizing the continuing education/learning experience. A survey is sent to each trainee prior to starting their experience, so that we can become familiar with their goals and experience level, and tailor the program to their individual needs. Trainees may choose to attend lectures of interest that occur within the Health System during their traineeship week, or have additional discussions about specific topics (hepatic, renal, critical care, GI, electrolytes, etc), or brainstorming sessions about specific "clinical conundrums." Experiences such as a PubMed class at our excellent Health Science Library, or observation of GI and/or fluoroscopic procedures are just two examples of electives that may be available during the traineeship week.
Current research articles are critically evaluated and reviewed during our monthly journal club as well as in daily rounds. Methods for critically evaluating research are discussed, as well as "tricks of the trade" for literature review, and staying up to date. In addition, we will discuss how current research could be translated into practice at the participant's home facility. Experiences with nursing, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, ICU outcome managers are all part of the traineeship experience.
Admission Criteria
The Traineeship is for clinical practitioners who work in nutrition support, and are interested in expanding their practice horizons and expertise. There are no absolute entry criteria except enthusiasm for nutrition support, and a thirst for knowledge, but practitioners should have 1-2 years of clinical experience that includes working with nutrition support patients to get maximum benefit from the experience.
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