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"Teaching is not

the filling of a pail

but the lighting

of the fire."

~

William Butler Yeats

~

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The Sodexo distance Education Dietetic Internship has a Leadership Concentration.  Please click here for more details.

Orientation: 64 hours. Orientation will take place at the beginning of the program in New England.  Orientation will be held for eight straight days.  This will allow you to complete this portion of the program with  minimal time away from work and family.   Orientation classes are designed to prepare you to begin working independently as soon as possible in each rotation.  During orientation we will also begin exploring various leadership styles and theories that you will be observing and applying throughout the internship.  See our General Information and Costs Page for more specific information about orientation and class week.

Class Week: Class Time:  24 hours.  Class Week will take place in a location and time determined by the internship staff with input from the interns, generally on the West Coast.  For the remainder of the class hours we will be using computer based on-line classes and weekly chats covering a wide variety of topics.  During your chats, you will have an opportunity to practice your facilitation skills that you will apply in meetings and presentations throughout the internship.  See our General Information and Costs Page for more specific information about orientation and class week.

Clinical: 560 hours. This consists of hospital based and long term care experience, where you will learn assessment, counseling, education and clinical leadership skills with a variety of patients and disease states.  You will be expected to perform with increasing competence and independence through the course of the rotation, so that you will be able to provide staff relief and function at entry level practice at the conclusion of this rotation.  This rotation may be completed at one or more facilities depending on the acuity of patients and your individual interests.  You will provide 10 days of staff relief for dietitians in your assigned practice site after successful completion of the clinical rotation.  Staff relief will provide you with an opportunity to practice your patient care clinical skills as well as your leadership skills in managing your own patient care work load.

Clinical Specialty.  As part of your clinical rotation, you will choose a specialized clinical area such as critical care, renal, psychiatric, or pediatric nutrition.  Other specialty rotations may be arranged with the  program director.  Choice of specialty rotations may be limited by your geographic location and availability of practice sites.

Long Term Care.  You will participate in providing nutrition care for residents of a long term care facility or subacute unit.   You will become familiar with the procedures and forms that are required by state and federal mandates and learn about the dietitian's role in providing nutrition care as part of the health care team.

Breakdown of clinical hours is:

Clinical Management: 40 hours.  In order to further assist with developing your leadership skills, you will have the opportunity to experience a 40 hour clinical nutrition management rotation.  During this time you will spend time with the clinical manager experiencing the interworking of the clinical nutrition unit and the hospital community.  Some activities that you will experience are: participation at a hospital-wide committee, participating in writing the clinical or diet office schedule and/or the clinical staffing model, facilitate a clinical, diet office, or department staff meeting, and work on a performance improvement project.

Food Service Management: 240 hours.   You will learn how a foodservice operation functions and will begin to develop leadership and management skills through observation and practice.  40 of these hours will be in patient services management, generally at your clinical site.  The majority of our interns complete their main food service management rotation at one of Sodexo's corporate, campus or school facilities.  This gives interns an opportunity to experience management in a non-healthcare setting.  Another 40 hours will be in management staff relief where you will practice your management and leadership skills.

Community: 200 hours. You will spend time in a variety of community settings.  You will plan your specific experiences based on your interests  and availability of services in the geographic area.   You will become familiar with the variety of community and public health opportunities available and will gain proficiency in providing nutrition counseling and education in an outpatient or community setting, with both individuals and groups.  You will spend 40 hours working with children, 40 hours with adults, and 40 hours with seniors.  The remainder of your community hours will be working with populations of your choice.  You will learn networking, negotiation and self-marketing skills during the planning and arranging of this rotation.  Exposure to a community based public health setting and a school based community setting must be included as part of the program requirements.

Individual Elective Rotation:  200 hours. You will choose your Individual Elective Rotation focus based on your individual interests and career goals.  Clinical, foodservice management, specialty, long term care or community rotations may be expanded.   You may also choose to focus in another area with the approval of your advisor.  You will work with your advisor to design your learning experience and will submit a written proposal prior to beginning the rotation.  Learning objectives of the individual elective rotation must be consistent with the Standards of Education of the American Dietetic Association and the goals of the program. Click Here to read about some of the elective rotation topics of our current and past interns.

Assignments: In addition to the required tasks and competencies in each rotation, you will be expected to complete a variety of assignments and self-directed learning activities designed to supplement the practical learning experiences.  Some of these assignments and projects will be posted to the web site for sharing with the other interns and some are completed collaboratively with other interns through chat room times.  You are required to complete these assignments outside of rotation--supervised practice hours..