Dietetic Internship/Distance Internship FAQs

Our program is one year in length. Interns begin orientation the third week of August and will finish the internship the following August (around the second week of the month).

Nutrition Education

• On-site students will gain experience with nutrition education through our community teaching kitchen
• Distance interns can choose locations of their choice to provide nutrition education sessions/programs

The most up-to-date information for cost can be found on our website:

• On-site
• Distance

The GRE is not required for our internship programs.

The internship is the first priority for interns. Most students can work a few hours each week. Absences due to outside employment are considered unexcused. An intern’s top priority should be the internship and accommodations for employment outside the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics will not be made. A dietitian’s work schedule does not always fit into an eight-hour day. Interns are expected to remain at their rotations until the preceptor excuses them for the day. Interns are not permitted to ask to leave early for a job.

• Each applicant is asked to complete a video interview through Hireflix and directions on how to complete this will be part of your DICAS application.
• You will be asked to answer 5 questions. Once you see the question you will have 45 seconds to prepare your answer and 2 minutes to record your answer.

We do offer the All Access Dietetics Pass Class RDN Review course at no additional cost to you. During this course, you will attend virtual sessions and complete worksheets, quizzes, and exams.

You do not. The internship director will set up all rotations for you.

There are many areas that provide housing options for on-site interns. Here are a few places: http://www.thorntreeapts.com and http://www.gardenparkrentals.com/. We are happy to connect you with current interns if you would like more information on housing.

It is a requirement that you obtain preceptors for the following rotations:

• • Nutrition Education
    • Look for preceptors who work nutrition education
      • Extension Services
      • School Nutrition Educators
      • Senior Centers
      • Nutrition Education Programs
    • Look for preceptors who are providing nutrition education
      • State Extension Program Agents/Educators
    • Community Nutrition
      • Look for preceptors who are providing nutrition education in community setting
        • Outpatient services in hospitals/clinics
        • Private Practice Dietitians
        • Eating Disorder Clinics
        • WIC
        • Employee Wellness Dietitians
        • Government Nutrition Policy
        • Public Health Dietitians
        • National Dairy Council
        • National Beef Council
        • Grocery Market Dietitians
        • Sports Dietitians
      • Medical Nutrition Therapy
        • Look for dietitians working in:
          • acute care hospitals
          • rehab hospitals
          • long-term care facilities
          • inpatient eating disorders
        • Also, with MNT you are required to have at minimum 4 weeks of ACUTE CARE experience
      • Food Service Management
        • Look for dietitians/supervisors working in:
          • hospital food service management
          • food service directors working in public school setting (sometimes are dietitians, but doesn’t have to be)
          • food service directors in university or college setting (sometimes are dietitians, but doesn’t have to be)

• The short answer here is yes. You are required to find your own rotation sites for the distance internship program. The internship coordinator will assist you in giving you ideas and supporting you as you make contact with sites, but ultimately you are the one finding and contacting these sites to work with you.
• Now, previous interns have contracted with multiple sites around the country over the last several years, so there may be sites that are close to your vicinity that have experience working with Marshall University. A list of those sites can be provided upon request.

• You are encouraged to schedule your rotation hours Tuesday-Friday each week. There are some dietitians that do work weekends and you are permitted to schedule your hours on weekend days as well, if you so choose.
• Mondays are for completing your graduate class work. You are NOT permitted to schedule rotation hours on Mondays during the fall and spring term semesters.

• No, you set up your rotations according to how it best fits your schedule and that of your preceptors. We would encourage you to not immediately jump into completing your MNT at the beginning of the year as many interns have reported that they wished they would have waited further into their internship to complete this experience after having experience in other rotations and obtaining deeper information of MNT knowledge from their graduate courses. But, there are many MNT preceptors that have only so many opportunities for availability, so you basically go with what you can get with your MNT rotations.
• You should also note that you may be in a situation where a preceptor can only take you for 4 weeks at one point in time and then can allow you to complete your hours at that site several months later. It is perfectly fine to split up your rotations as such.

You are permitted to complete two rotations at the same site and under the same preceptor; however, we encourage you to try and find multiple preceptors to learn from during your internship experiences. Learning under one preceptor is perfectly fine, but it is better when you can have multiple preceptors to learn from.