Marco A. Nattamon Kaylee N. Jelena T.

Aguirre Aram Brimm Etemovic

CSULB CSUN CSULB CSULA

Shanna A. Alycen
Hannah L. Robin M.
Hie Parsons
Gross Hensch

Baylor CPP
CSULB CSULB
University

Alyssa L. Kelly R. Elle Gabby

Quintanilla Smallwood Teitelbaum Zeagler

Baylor CSULB San Diego Texas

University State Christian
University University

Dr. Gail
Internship Program & Master of Science California State Frank
University Long Beach MPH, RD,
Cohort 7: 2018-2019 Graduate Classes CHES
2019-2020 Practicum Director,
IPND
Day in the Life
of a Dietetic
Intern
California State University, Long Beach
Internship Program in Nutrition & Dietetics (IPND)
Cohort 7 (2018-2020)
A typical week for the interns:
Monday (Alternates between):
- Class with Dr. Frank
- Time dedicated to discussing rotations, assignments, and to present in
front of the class
- Greater Los Angeles Dietetic Internship Coalition (GLADIC)

Tuesday-Friday
- At rotation sites (32 hrs/day)
- Planned Experiences
- Projects
- Thesis/Directed Project
GLADIC
● On select Mondays - 8am - 3pm
● Participating internships meet together in various locations
throughout LA county for lectures and network building
● Lectures consist of current topics and practice standards in
dietetics
● Examples of lecture topics include: MNT for specific
diseases and conditions, food science, hot topics in
research and more!
Rotation Name: Disordered Eating
Daily Schedule/Location: T-F, time is variable based on daily activities
Center For Discovery, Lakewood
Main Responsibilities:
● Observe and assist (when appropriate) the RDN with individual and
group counseling sessions. Review and chart patient information in
the electronic medical record.
● Monitor and regulate patient conversation and behavior, during
mealtimes and activities. Direct conversation positively and model
appropriate behaviors.
● Assist in meal planning using the exchange system and preparation
as needed.
Favorite Experience:
● Restaurant exposure outing. When patients reach a certain point in
their treatment, they participate in a weekly restaurant outing.
While at this rotation the exposure restaurant was Taco Bell. The
clients preplan what they are going to order to help reduce anxiety.
At the restaurant, the patients have 30 minutes to complete eating.
It is the responsibility of staff to reduce anxiety and encourage
patients during this outing while normalizing eating in public.

5
Rotation Name: Self-Select

Daily Schedule/Location:
● Herbalife Nutrition
● Conducted remotely
● Tu-F, 8 AM - 5 PM

Main Responsibilities:
● Created Feasibility Reports for developing products using
personal research
● Meeting RDNs and team members in various departments
(Product Science & Safety, Consumer Safety, Product
Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, Education and Training, and
Government Affairs)

Favorite Experience:
● Getting to present my M.S. Project to the Herbalife Nutrition
team

All of the employees I met were so passionate about their work

and about creating quality products that will benefit people’s 6
health
Other Locations Dietetic Interns Chose for Self-Select

OC Nutrition
Coaching
7
Rotation Name: Head Start

Daily Schedule/Location:
● 8:00am-4:30pm T-F; Orange County Head Start

Main Responsibilities:
● Creating handouts for nutrition activities
● Visiting the Head Start sites and taking height
and weight of the children
● Helping with distribution of food at a OCHS/OC
Food Bank event

Favorite Experience:
● Handing out food to families at a Head Start
school in Fullerton.
Clinical Case Study
Alycen Parsons
Community Annotated
Bibliographies
&
Nutrition Therapy Annotated
Bibliography
Kaylee Brimm
Community Rotation Annotated
Bibliography
Community Rotation Annotated
Bibliography
Nutrition Therapy Annotated Bibliography
Questions?
Please use the chat
Break
Please return at 9:45am
Master of Science - Thesis
Hannah Gross
Master of Science - Directed Project
Robin Hensch
Overview of Experiences and
Recommendations
Nutrition Across the Life Cycle Communication
Purpose: Interns will advance their skills for client-centered interviewing and counseling as
well as to be able to tailor health promotion and chronic disease prevention plans to
individuals across the life cycle.

Interns work in pairs and complete the following experiences to support this competency:
● Motivational Interviewing Script
● 1-minute Public Service Announcement video
● 10-year health promotion plan
● Written report on the entire experience
Community Rotation: WIC
Duration/Location: 6 weeks/WIC, Baldwin Park

Important Learning Experiences:

● Observing individual counseling sessions
● Conducting group education classes
● Performing height and weight measurements on infants,
children, pregnant and postnatal women
● Participating in community outreach at clinics and the public
library

Strengths:
● Opportunity for individual and group education
● Opportunity to go into local community and provide education
● Very caring, helpful, and friendly staff

Areas Needing Improvement:

● Additional learning experiences/projects
Nutrition Education Rotation: OCDE
Duration/Location: 3 weeks/Conducted remotely

Important Learning Experiences:

● Developed a nutrition education curriculum for Westminster
School District focusing on Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
● Created a virtual grocery store tour featuring interactive
nutrition-related activities
● Observed and participated in a meal distribution held at an
elementary school

Strengths:
● Inclusion on actual projects that will be implemented in schools
● Friendly and helpful staff

Areas Needing Improvement:

● Introducing projects after completion of previous ones, not all
at the same time, to prevent confusion and feeling
overwhelmed
 AIDS Project Los Angeles
Duration: 6 weeks (falls within the community rotation requirement)

Important Training Experiences/PEs:

● Food demonstration with recipes, nutrient analysis, costing, and food
safety educational component
● Nutrition assessments in the community setting

Strengths:
● Learning the importance of nutrition in the management of HIV and AIDS
● Awareness and importance of eliminating the stigma of HIV
● Ample time and dedication from supervisory RD

Room for Improvement:

● Would have been valuable to be able to visit the pantry in person to gain a
better understanding of how it is ran (was unable to due to COVID-19)

Recommendations:
● Plan ahead for conducting all assessments so that they can be completed
within the 6-week period
Nutrition Therapy Rotation
Duration: 9-weeks | Location: Torrance Memorial Medical Center

● Important Learning Experiences:

○ Medical Nutrition Therapy (Med-surg, ICU, Oncology, Transitional Care, etc.)
○ Charting & Medical Records
○ Attending Rounds; Lunch & Learn events
○ Interviewing Patients; Nutrition Focused Physical Exams
○ Clinical Case Study -Stroke Patient
● Competencies:
○ Working as part of an interdisciplinary team
○ Professionalism; Ethics
○ Time management
○ Critical Thinking; Clinical Judgement
● Areas Needing Improvement: Provide onboarding training/guide before the start of the internship.
Set schedule to meet Planned Experiences.
Burns & Outpatient Rotations
Duration: 1 week each, Location: UCI Medical Center

Burns Outpatient

Exceptional Learning ● Implement NCP for ● Schedule

Experiences patients ● Conduct sessions and
● Tour of hydrotherapy practice MI under
room supervision
● PowerPoint resource ● Practice charting

Areas for Improvement Consider sending N/A

PowerPoint prior to rotation

Management Supportive, friendly, excellent level of communication

 Pediatrics & Research Rotations
Pediatrics (remote) Research

Duration/ Location 1 week/ CHOC 1 week/ Harbor UCLA

Biomedical Research Institution

Important Learning Experiences ● MNT for Pediatric ● Literature review

Patients ● Research objective and
● Scientific literatures on hypothesis
pediatric nutrition care ● Research methods
● Statistical analysis
● Results, discussion and
conclusion

Strengths ● Structured schedule ● Structured schedule

● Powerpoint presentation ● Teamwork
on each topic of the day
● Case studies

Weaknesses ● Occasionally ● Confusion with

overwhelming hypothesis
Foodservice Rotation
Intern: Gabby Zeagler
Duration: 6 weeks
Location: College Hospital Costa Mesa

Important Training Experiences/PEs:

● Creating a cycle menu and how to make changes to standardized recipes
● Creating/conducting the special meal
● Selecting a new POS system
● Conducting a plate waste study to identify the more popular foods
among patients as well as administering patient food satisfaction surveys

Strengths:
● Able to get a great grasp on the manager’s role in the food service setting
● Supervisory RDN was very organized, offered a lot of guidance and
provided a daily schedule

Recommendations:
● Plan out when and how majority of planned experiences will get
completed within first few days
School Foodservice Rotation
Intern: Shanna Hie
NT & FS Location: Kaiser Permanente Downey

Duration: 3 weeks
Location: Long Beach Unified School District
Conducted remotely

Important Training Experiences/PEs:

● School Lunch Hero Day video
● At-home taste test
● 5-day lunch menu
School Foodservice Rotation
Strengths:
● Initial meeting with Sheri
● Level of communication
● Virtual meetings & tours

Room for Improvement:

● Accessing public vendor & price information
● Visuals or videos to see foodservice in action

Recommendations:
● More shadowing and participating in daily activities
Business/ Entrepreneurial Rotation
Intern: Alyssa Quintanilla
Duration: 2 weeks
Location: Vanessa Avila, Pasadena

Important Training Experiences/PEs: Business Plan

Strengths:
● Physically going in to see how SRDN conducts counseling
● Listening to SRDN’s personal story and how they got their business started

Room for Improvement:

● Going over PEs in detail with intern
● Ask questions and ask for advice

Recommendations:
● Make sure intern knows what they are supposed to get out of the rotation
● Encourage intern to make business plan as specific as possible
Leadership
Duration: 1 Week
Location: With Dr. Frank, on CSULB campus and remote

Highlight an assignment completed in a rotation & highlight one of our supervisory

RDNs

As well as individualized additional assignments

Examples:
- Adapted a new & improved MI training presentation
- Edited/updated the post-year survey, compiled a report of prior responses,
corresponding quiz for the MI training
- Formatting & organizing the “Day in the Life of a DI” powerpoint
Professional Development
Each semester interns were given an additional project

● Presented to an undergraduate nutrition class

○ How to afford an internship/ application process
○ How to be a competitive applicant
● Gold Star cooking demonstration
● Poverty simulation
● Presenting our clinical case studies to undergraduate nursing students

Obtain 3 CEUs & report on them

Practice using the “Dream Wizard” provided by CDR to draft a

professional portfolio.
 Professional Day
Natt Aram wrote a newsletter article for the California
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics – Orange District.

- She decided to research and write an article on Gut

Microbiome and Obesity.

Other interns

- Helped organize/plan a virtual mixer for LA district

- Creating social media posts for women’s health week
- Researched catering for an event and made flyers
General Recommendations,
COVID recommendations &
Discussion
 Recommendations for Supervisory RDNs

1. Familiarize yourself with the PEs if possible

2. Provide a plan or structure
3. Provide interns with opportunities to
experience what the RDNs do at your
facility
Questions?

Please use the chat

COVID-19 Modification Recommendations
1. Videos/ photos of your facility to provide visual understanding of
the workplace
○ You can support this by preparing a video/ photos or just a
designated time on the first day to provide the intern with
information about the facility and create some type of visual
for the intern.
○ Interns can support this by asking for this
experience
1. Training/ Understanding of virtual communications
COVID-19 Modification Recommendations
3. Daily or 2-3x/week communications on phone or zoom
4. If providing remote work, the inclusion of a case study or case
study questions
○ So the intern can translate knowledge into practice
5. If possible, try to gain access to remote EMR
○ If not possible, simulation of patient interaction
may be necessary/ beneficial
○ Let interns tune into your calls to clients/ patients
Questions?

Please use the chat

Discussion
Is there anything you would like to recommend to us?