Tips for Success as a Dietetic Intern
Feeling jittery as the start of your internship approaches? You are not alone! Here are 10 tips for success to help you calm those nerves.
As the start date for your dietetic internship approaches, feelings of anxiety may begin to settle in. You’ve just graduated, or are about to, (congratulations!), are feeling confident and on top of the world, and now are preparing for the next step – the coveted dietetic internship. But wait – where is your confidence?
Person celebrating graduation
You wonder…
Will you remember the course content from upper-level nutrition and dietetics courses?
What if the other interns completed more clinical nutrition coursework than at your university?
What traits are the preceptors looking for in their interns?
10 Tips for Success
During my 14 years of directing a graduate coordinated program in dietetics, interns asked these questions and many more. Let’s try to unpack some of the stressors that may contribute to your feelings of no confidence. Here are ten tips that will contribute to your success as an intern.
1. You’ve got this! When graduate students doubted their ability to “succeed” during their rotations, especially clinical, I would gently remind them that they were selected from a pool of program applicants. They earned their spot because the applicant review committee believed in their potential to succeed as an intern and future RDN.
2. Over the years it was clear that the most anxiety-provoking rotation was clinical.
How would they remember all the disease conditions and appropriate medical nutrition therapy?
What if their motivational interviewing skills faltered while talking with a patient or client?
What if a member of the medical team asked the intern a question and they didn’t know the answer?
These are all normal questions. Nonetheless, there are a few steps you can take to regain your footing.
Remember that you are still in a learning phase of your career. Honestly, that learning phase never ends, it is simply more intense at certain times than others on your professional journey. The dietetic internship qualifies as one of steepest and most intense learning curves of your career.
Back to the clinical issue.
Remember - over the course of your DPD program, you had a clinical nutrition textbook. Keep it and use it as a reference for the different clinical cases you are asked to cover. You have an awareness of evidence-based resources – use them.
Perhaps more importantly during your clinical rotation is demonstrating the application of the nutrition care process. The uniqueness of the RDN on the clinical care team is their ability to assess and diagnose nutrition problems, and create a food and nutrition intervention with appropriate monitoring and evaluation (ADIME). These are the critical thinking skills that you’ve been developing and will refine during each rotation.
Develop your rapport-building skills. Observe how your preceptor creates a comfortable and trusting climate for a non-threatening conversation with a patient, client and/or their family.
3. The internship is about more than clinical rotations. All ACEND accredited programs must provide a minimum number of hours in each of the three main areas of professional practice – clinical, community and food service management. Be open-minded; even if you are 100% certain that clinical is your “place”, you might discover other areas of interest when in the non-clinical rotations.
4. Prepare to make mistakes. And learn from them. This is the time to test the waters (knowledge and skills) under the watchful eye of an experienced practitioner. Your preceptors are there to “supervise” your practice experience. Seize the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.
5. Take 5-10 minutes at the end of each rotation day to reflect on your experience. This is where you solidify the acquisition of new skills and knowledge.
Focus on one “ah-ha” moment each day. What is still with you at day’s end?
Ask yourself – what was it about that event or activity or conversation that still has you thinking about it? Or perhaps wrestling with what went wrong?
Other useful prompts to guide your reflection include:
What went well today?
What didn’t go so well?
How will you do it differently next time?
Your reflection can also serve as a conversation springboard the next day with your preceptor (who will be impressed that you’ve been reflecting!). This type of reflection will prepare you for professional practice when you need to reflect on your feet (i.e., apply critical thinking skills in the moment).
6. Be a sponge. Be curious. Ask questions. Soak it all in. Always keep a small notebook with you for jotting down notes, observations, and questions.
7. Be present in every moment. It is unlikely that you will ever have another chance to observe the dynamics between professionals and their colleagues, staff, clients and patients on a team in so many different settings. Tune into and learn from the soft skills you will witness.
8. Respect the wisdom and experience of all staff members when you are in rotation. Sometimes interns, with their newly minted college degree, felt they knew more about food service than the “lunch ladies”. The school nutrition staff may not have a college education however they have plenty of “in the trenches” experience safely preparing food and operating on a team. Notice how easily they interact with the students in the lunch line. Every rotation will be full of learning opportunities.
9. Roll with every situation. Stuck in the dish room for a day or two? I used to remind students that there is no task beneath them. Every person on a team that they will work with during their rotations plays an important role in whatever the task at hand. While loading the dishwasher, think about why the preceptor included this experience for your professional development. (More reflection!)
10. Send a thank-you note to the preceptor once the rotation ends. This small gesture of gratitude means a lot to the preceptor who has put in many extra hours to provide you with a meaningful supervised practice experience.
Want to learn more about how to succeed as an intern? Join us for a free live webinar on May 31 with experienced preceptors who will (1) share their thoughts about traits they seek in an intern and (2) answer your questions. Register here.