Featured Intern: Support for Dietetic Interns and Students

Lately I have noticed a lack of support for dietetic interns. A recent cover article in the ADA Times discussed  how more students applied for internships than internship spots were available. The article plainly explained how there are just not enough internships available and suggested that more RD’s need to accept interns and new programs need to be developed. I completely agree, and once I become a RD I plan to open my career to as many students as possible. I have found others to be not so welcoming.

I discovered this recently during my nutrition support rotation. My internship director had been calling all over to find a RD who would take my group for out nutrition support rotation. Sometimes you stumble across the RD who graciously and eagerly accepts interns to work with him or her because they legitimately love to teach and share their career experience. This RD is like a gem in a pile of sand and gravel.  Some RDs want to accept interns, but sincerely can not because of the circumstances of their job and/or life.  Once she finds a RD who agrees to take interns, there are piles of paperwork to be completed . This paperwork sometimes takes up to two months (or more!) to complete. It doesn’t help that the RD is often unwilling to assist in this process.

I have found RDs at my rotation sites who have been rude, discounting, and negative. For example, there is one RD who works with a RD exam preparation center/organization and is not willing to educate the interns on a single thing. This person merely walks by the interns, laughing and shooting out sarcastic comments. Of course people are not always rude and unkind, there is one dietitian who is as sweet as can be and volunteers to take us with her when she checks on her TPN patients. After all, we are interns and we are dying to learn all we can. So when we come across dietitians who are unwilling to help us learn, we feel resentful.

My goal for this article was to bring to light the fact that the dietetic internships programs across the nation still need a lot of work and help from fellow dietitians. In conclusion, I want to shout out a big thanks to those dietitians who share a big part of their career with interns and students!