The Cleveland Clinic Dietetic Internship is designed to prepare interns to manage the provision of nutrition services to a targeted population in nutrition therapy, community dietetics, foodservice systems or sales. This is consistent with the program philosophy in that effective management requires leadership, creativity, collaboration and the ability to make good decisions. The learning experiences planned for each rotation of the program gradually develop these competencies.

The learning experiences are also planned to promote interactions between interns and the supervising faculty. Direct supervision, with interns having a limited scope of practice, is begun in the introductory rotations. As skill increases, so does the level of responsibility, autonomy and the number and complexity of cases.

Throughout each rotation, the multidisciplinary approach is reinforced. The scope of colleagues expands as the level of responsibility increases. Interactions with direct care givers are first experienced in the clinical, foodservice and community rotations, however as the interns progress, support personnel in such areas as Human Resources, Public Affairs, Photography, Audiovisuals, Graphic Services, Purchasing, and Payroll are also incorporated into the working relationships which help to create the total picture from a management perspective.

The curriculum is planned to utilize the resources available to the interns to the fullest extent. Accessibility to educational and audiovisual resources, computer terminals, and the expertise of the internship faculty facilitate learning. Recognizing that individuals have different interests and priorities, the internship has also been structured to allow interns several choices of specialty experiences in all rotations as well as for four special projects. In this way, decision-making will be fostered and, hopefully, interns will enjoy and learn more from their training.

There is one fulltime class each year, starting in August. In 1997 a part-time option became available. The part-time option will be available again this year. Six fulltime and possibly two part-time interns are in each class. The length of the program is 45 weeks (10.5 months) fulltime or 73.5 weeks (18 months) part-time. The number of interns and the sequence of rotations have been planned to maximize the interactions among interns and faculty, to permit as much supervised practice as possible, and to efficiently communicate information which needs to be conveyed to each individual. For this reason, all 8 interns are scheduled at the same time for the orientation rotation, introductory sales/marketing rotation and all classes throughout the internship. For learning experiences which are primarily observational, with limited hands-on work, interns are scheduled in pairs. For learning experiences geared primarily to individualized instruction and supervised practice, interns are scheduled one-on-one with faculty.

The sales and marketing rotation which includes the resources of nutritional sales companies, food distributors, food manufacturers, foodservice management consultants, corporate and sports nutrition, when available, and private nutrition practice will enable interns to learn strategies and put them into practice.

In the two weeks of advanced community and/or sales and marketing rotations, interns may select alternative rotation sites in a geographical location favorable to their preferred future employment. The option requires additional paper work, planning, and financial responsibilities on the part of the intern. Each situation will be discussed individually between the program director and the intern. 

Throughout the internship, classes are scheduled; topics include clinical, foodservice, community, management, sales and marketing issues. In an effort to foster networking opportunities for interns, several classes are provided in collaboration with MetroHealth Medical Center's Dietetic Internship Program.

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Dietetic Internship is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Dietetic Education (CADE), a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation and the United States Department of Education.