- Washington State District Dietetic Associations and Practice Groups:
- Greater Seattle
- Greater Spokane
- North Sound
- Olympia Area
- South Sound
- Southwest Washington
- Tricities
- Yakima Valley
Internship Information
From: The Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education [mailto:cade@eatright.org]Sent: June 1, 2009
To: CADE Program Directors
Subject: Actions to Address the Availability of Dietetic Internship Positions
Everyone in the dietetics education community is aware of the difficulty that students are having in obtaining dietetic internship positions. Historically, the two-step process has allowed internships to select from among the most qualified applicants in order to give them the opportunity to complete their education. In recent years, however, the number of internship positions has remained relatively constant while the number of graduates from DPD programs has increased, leaving growing numbers of qualified students who are unable to complete their education and become Registered Dietitians.
During the first round of the April 2009 match, approximately 50% of the 4,120 applicants did not get internships. Moreover, that percentage is expected to grow, due to growing numbers of new DPD graduates, unsuccessful applicants reapplying for internships, and a relatively stagnant number of internship positions. In view of the need to protect the welfare of students, the CADE board has taken and will be taking a series of actions to enhance the number of qualified students who are able to complete their education:
* The CADE board is requesting that DI programs with sufficient resources accept additional interns. In order to facilitate this process, CADE is temporarily allowing programs to submit the Major Program Change documentation after accepting the additional students for 2009-2010.
* The CADE board has issued a moratorium, effective June 1, 2009, on new DPDs applying for candidacy, unless they have a process to assure that all qualified students will obtain an internship position. The moratorium will not affect existing DPD programs, DPD programs that have had their accreditation withdrawn between May 1, 2008, and April 30, 2009, or new programs that have submitted an application for accreditation by CADE by June 1, 2009. The moratorium will be reviewed at regular intervals to determine when it should be lifted.
* The CADE board is requiring that all currently-enrolled students and all students applying to dietetics programs be informed of the magnitude of the shortage of internship positions to allow them to make informed career decisions. The CADE board is providing DPD programs with data in advance to allow them to inform students, themselves, before the information is made available to the public on August 1, 2009. Programs may wish to establish procedures to verify that currently enrolled students and all students applying to dietetics programs have read and understand the information being presented to them. The data are available as a PDF document (29 KB) at:
http://www.eatright.org/ada/PDF/InternshipAvailabilityJune2009.pdf
* The CADE board is requesting that programs voluntarily take steps to counsel students who have a low probability of meeting dietetic-internship requirements into other careers where they will have a better chance of success.
* The CADE board is requesting that programs voluntarily review their practices for accepting students into their programs and requirements for successful program completion.
CADE will be cooperating with the educators, practitioners and the ADA leadership to develop other voluntary approaches to address this situation while protecting students and the autonomy of educational institutions.