College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences

 

The Dietetic Internship (DI) is a graduate certificate program that provides the required supervised practice experience for students that have completed the necessary didactic dietetics coursework and have a desire to become a Registered Dietitian. Dietetic interns complete 27 weeks of supervised practice and concurrent graduate online courses in clinical, community, and food service management with a program emphasis in Child Nutrition Programs and School Food Service Systems Management. All Prior Assessed Learning (PAL) internship hours that are waived will be noted on the transcript. The completion of the practice hours and online courses results in a total of 26 graduate credits.  These credits can later be used towards obtaining the Master of Dietetics Administration (MDA) degree. On completion of the internship, the students are awarded a graduate certificate recognizing their completion of the graduate coursework and are eligible to sit for the national registered dietitian examination.

A Registered Dietitian is a highly-qualified health professional, recognized as an expert on food and nutrition. Dietitians are employed in a variety of settings and work in management or as clinicians in healthcare institutions, schools, universities, industry, home health agencies, government-funded agencies, wellness programs, research, and so forth.

Dietetic Internship Admission Requirements

Students seeking admission must meet the minimum selection criteria and satisfy the admissions requirements for the DI program. This includes participating in the DICAS online centralized dietetic internship application and D&D Digital Dietetic Internship Matching service.

For a complete list of admission requirements and minimum selection criteria for this program, please refer to dieteticinternship.usu.edu.

Program Schedule

The DI is designed to allow students to train in their current location or a location that is convenient for the individual student. As part of the application process, prospective students are responsible for finding their own training facilities and preceptors in their desired location, based on the USU DI guidelines.

The online courses listed below are variable credits and students are enrolled in classes corresponding to their supervised practice schedule.

Licensure Notification

The USU DI meets the performance requirements for supervised practice hours for students who have completed the academic requirements of the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND), the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ accrediting agency for education programs preparing students for careers as registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN).

It is ACEND’s considered opinion that the program is designed to and meets all state dietetics licensure and certification laws as some states may interpret their statutes differently. More information about state licensure and certification is available at this link: State Licensure.