Meredith College Dietetic Internship Programs

Cathie Ostrowski, MS, RD, LDN, FAND

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Process of Increasing our DI1. Brainstorming Meetings (4 months)

• Simulation• Preceptor Pathway• Distance

2. Developed our Site Preceptor Pathway, including staff, budget, contract, timeline (2 months)

3. Discussed with our Leadership (6+ months)

4. Contacted a local hospital we knew well (first meeting to contract signing took 7 months)

Details of our new program

5. Contracting with the hospital—(3 months)• Meredith would hire RDs and admin• Three groups of interns rotation through in FSM and Clinical• Students move to Raleigh for 16 weeks, then return home

for intern-identified rotations

6. College hired 1.7 FTEs—(2-3 months )• 1 FTE-RD• 0.4 FTE-RD• 0.3 admin

7. Budget--we needed 10 interns to break even

Details of our new program

8. Staff Training--1 month (2 would have been optimal!)

9. Major Program Change submitted to ACEND and approved (1 month)

10. Applications—word of mouth only, 30 applications (1 month)

Idea conception to intern’s first day was 19 months

What has made this program successful

• Support of management/leadership staff at the hospital & college

• Support of lead RD

• Teaching hospital welcoming to interns

• Upper level management (VP, CEO) trusting in interns’ projects

• Students willing to try something new!

• Communication!

Benefits to the Hospital

• Updated diet manual in 2015 using latest guidelines, streamlining with patient menus and education materials

• Silver Spoons program growth due in large part to interns

• Presentation to Magnet Appraisers

• QA/PI project on tray line accuracy

Benefits to the Hospital

• Revenue project on Bistro Coffee Shop

• Metro Deli proposal & approval

• Inventory project in FNS

• Development of finger foods diet in FNS & education material

Benefits to the Hospital

• Coverage for RDs when they are off for weekends, vacation, unexpected absences, etc.

• Closer to best practices for visiting patients

• New ideas for improvement

• Retail development—dashboard view

• Research latest nutrition guidelines to stay current (i.e. case studies and journal club)

Benefits to the Interns

• Group learning fosters and accelerates the learning process; support, interns understand better when a peer explains something

• Environment of 4-5 interns mimics that of most future positions - interns learn to respect and understand differences in people, personalities, etc.

• Renown facility to complete rotations in.

• Stable schedule/no preceptor cancelations!

Benefits to the Interns

• Personalized attention with dedicated preceptor/continuity of having one, dedicated preceptor

• Balance of having a dedicated preceptor time that has time for one-on-one, sees your growth

• Working with staff who are excited to have them

• Variety and ability to self-select other rotations

Win-Win

Pilot Site Preceptor Pathway Program was successful.

• The hospital wins. Large pool of interns to assist with day to day duties and special projects

• More interns are being placed in internships

• Each program hires 1.4 RD FTE’s plus .3 in administrative assistance) to support the interns

INNOVATIONS TO BUILD CAPACITY IN DIETETIC INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS

QUESTIONS?