Dietetic Internship Program Description
The Premier Health Dietetic Internship accepts interns annually. The program is a robust 17-month internship run concurrent with the University of Dayton Master’s Degree (30 credit hours) or Certificate (18 credit hours for those with a master’s degree) program, beginning in mid-August and ending in mid-December the following year. The program is currently granted accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND), a specialized accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
The program can be individualized to be shorter with a master’s certificate or longer, if needed. Discuss your personal strategy with the program directors.
Upon successful completion of the full-time internship and master’s or certificate program, you are eligible to take the registration exam for dietitians and apply for active membership in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Premier Health offers a program that prepares interns for entry-level positions as Registered Dietitian Nutritionists.
The Premier Dietetic Internship program is divided into two segments. Part I provides unique dietetic experiences in food service management, clinical, and community nutrition. Part II provides advanced level experiences including quality management, staff responsibility, elective experiences, professional seminar development, and research which allow individualization of the program to fulfill your interests. All rotations are arranged by the internship director to be more time efficient for you.
Prior Learning Credit
All prior learning will provide background and context for internship learning and application. Furthermore, recent accomplishment of learning activities can improve success. However, those interns with recent, significant experience within the last five years, may not find benefit in repetition of specific learning activities. As a result, the Internship does allow some prior learning credit for:
- Previously conducted master’s level research with manuscript submission as the primary investigator, approved in place of the UD research project
- Elective experiences, accounting for 30 hours of participation with and at the level of a dietitian or manager in a nutrition related field
- Food service meal event outside classroom requirements to plan and execute a special meal event, including recipe development, standardization, and systemization (electronic system, production plans, equipment use, etc), purchasing, staffing, marketing, costing, and retail distribution/sales
To qualify, the intern must submit the application to provide documentation of completion of the learning activities with confirmation of competency completion through support of a superior (dietitian or manager). Each of these is subject to approval by the Program Director(s) and dependent upon the individual situation.
Work Suggestion
If you plan to work during the internship, we suggest it is flexible and under 10h/week. Both Premier Health and University of Dayton have work options for you to explore.
Dietetic Internship Graduation Completion Requirements
To graduate, interns must have satisfactorily completed all assignments, projects, and rotations (with a minimum of 30 hours each with two exceptions) for a total of at least 1100 hours of supervised practice), as well as have earned either a Master's Degree in Dietetics and Nutrition or Advanced Dietetics and Nutrition Graduate Certificate from the University of Dayton.