Program Mission

The Mission of the Dietetic Internship program at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) is to develop competent entry-level or above entry-level dietetic professionals for evidence-based practice in clinical, community, or foodservice nutrition.  The program is structured for developing teamwork skills, establishing a basis for self-reflection and life-long learning essential for maintaining a credentialed status, promoting involvement in a professional organization, and providing the most effective learning environment through offering flexibility and support for individual interests and/or needs of students and by utilizing highly trained faculty.

Program Philosophy

The strength of the training within the VAGLAHS Dietetic Internship Program is a direct result of the setting in a large progressive and research-oriented Medical Center, highly trained staff dedicated to education, and a rewarding curriculum that requires performance of dietetic skills that are entry level or above. The supervised practice units are spent primarily on site at our facility promoting a cohesive learning environment.

The VAGLAHS provides an excellent setting for application of knowledge and development of clinical, community and administrative skills.  Unique to teaching hospitals, the dietetic intern will learn to function as a vital component of the health care team, gain a multi-disciplinary understanding of nutrition and patient care, and impact patient outcomes based on access to progressive nutrition, medical information and technology.  Similar team-focused care is provided to outpatients through a large and expanding ambulatory care service.  The administrative services are large in both size and scope, providing vast opportunities for interns in the areas of managing food service, personnel management and all levels of departmental administration. Management projects are based on practical needs identified in the department, used for department improvement, and intended to teach the interns life long skills of planning and coordination, time management, and critical thinking.  The program declares a general emphasis because of the vast amount of valuable opportunities in all areas of dietetics.

The dietetic professionals serving as faculty members are dedicated to education. They are committed to providing a comprehensive and supportive program for interns.  Utilizing the practice setting for learning experiences, the faculty serve as role models providing the highest quality preventive and restorative nutrition care to patients in cooperation with the health care team. The dietitians take ownership and pride in teaching the interns and use one-on-one teaching in a majority of the rotations to facilitate the most effective learning situation. The staff is large and the time spent with each dietitian gives the intern a variety of professional styles from which to learn in developing their own unique style of professional practice.  Continual constructive evaluation of intern performance provides for sequentially higher levels of professional competence.

The curriculum, which directs the learning experiences for the interns, is well developed and continuously revised to keep current with the rapidly changing health care field and intern interests. The focus of the curriculum is to train dietitians to be highly successful practitioners with a focus on future practice roles. The curriculum is developed to facilitate achievement of successively higher-level skills as the intern progresses through rotations in all areas of dietetics.

Above and beyond the Internship curriculum, the program provides the freedom and flexibility for the intern to individualize his/her experience. By offering extensive learning experiences, exposure to a variety of faculty members, whom encourage flexibility and personal professional growth, the interns are able to develop their own unique scope of practice. Active participation in a professional organization is a required component of the program to foster advanced leadership skills and continued professional growth.

In the Combined Program tracks, the Master of Public Health curriculum at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) or Master of Science in Nutritional Science curriculum at California State University Long Beach, provide synergistic enhancement to the Dietetic Internship program.  For the MPH track, courses related to behavioral change theory, program planning, research, community nutrition, and interactions with a diverse, multicultural student population increase and broaden knowledge and skills and provide exposure to professionals from other allied health fields.  For the MS track, courses related to further exploration of macro- and micronutrients, endocrinology as wells as literature review and research increase and broaden skills for areas of practice in the clinical arena and research.