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Dietetic internship skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Sandra Poirier,
Natalie Cooke PhD, RDN
Dietetic internship example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical dietetic internship skills. We ranked the top skills for dietetic interns based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 23.1% of dietetic internship resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a dietetic internship needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 dietetic internship skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how dietetic interns use patients:
  • Evaluated patients for nutrition related risk factors, provided nutrition education, developed care plans and coordinated care between multiple providers.
  • Provided individualized nutrition education of dialysis patients and monitoring and evaluation of nutritional lab values related to End Stage Renal Disease.

2. Diabetes Education

Here's how dietetic interns use diabetes education:
  • Provided Diabetes Management education during individual and group sessions -Developed bilingual diabetes education material -Attended diabetes and weight management programs
  • Observed dietitians and other CDE professionals counseling patients on diabetes education.

3. Medical Nutrition Therapy

Here's how dietetic interns use medical nutrition therapy:
  • Conducted nutrition assessments and provided medical nutrition therapy and education for both in- and out-patient settings (including renal nutrition).
  • Participated in one-on-one Diabetes Self-Management Education and Medical Nutrition Therapy in an outpatient ADA recognized site; developed strong administrative skills.

4. Oncology

Oncology is defined as the facet of medicine that deals with cancer. Oncology also deals with the prevention and diagnosis of these diseases. A medical professional who has studied the discipline of oncology is referred to as an ‘oncologist'. An oncologist can further specialize in their discipline and become a medical oncologist, surgical oncologist, or radiation oncologist.

Here's how dietetic interns use oncology:
  • Completed clinical dietetic rotations which also included specialty rotations in pediatrics, kidney/liver transplant, oncology, and critical care.
  • Completed clinical dietetic internship with rotations in oncology, cardiovascular disease, neurology, general medicine/geriatrics, and GI/surgery.

5. Nutrition Assessments

Here's how dietetic interns use nutrition assessments:
  • Conducted nutrition assessments for complex medical conditions and provided extensive diet education to diverse patient populations in inpatient and outpatient settings.
  • Performed nutrition assessment in various facilities in northern New Jersey, including inpatient, outpatient, rehabilitative, commercial and industrial settings

6. Long-Term Care

Here's how dietetic interns use long-term care:
  • Utilized the Nutrition Care Process to complete daily documentation and quarterly follow-ups for residents in the long-term care facility
  • Perform lab interpretation, nutritional assessment and interventions at Sadie G. Mays Long-term care Rehabilitation Center.

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7. Food Production

Here's how dietetic interns use food production:
  • Developed and directs investigative studies related to improve food production.
  • Participated in food production & distribution.

8. Nutrition Care Process

A nutrition care process is a systematic and standardized method that guides professional nutritionists, registered dietetic technicians, and dietitians for diagnosing, assessing, treating, monitoring, and providing quality nutritional care to patients. The nutrition care process consists of four different and interrelated phases: Nutritional Assessment, Nutritional Diagnosis, Nutritional Intervention, and Nutritional Monitoring/Evaluation.

Here's how dietetic interns use nutrition care process:
  • Identified nutritional needs of target population, developed care plans using nutrition care process and counseled assigned clients one-on-one.
  • Provided nutrition counseling and determined evidence-based interventions for clinical disease and symptom management using the Nutrition Care Process.

9. Nutrition Support

Here's how dietetic interns use nutrition support:
  • Provided supervised patient care, nutrition support, counseling and other services in clinical and community settings including Grady Memorial Hospital.
  • Provided organizational expertise and nutrition support, collaborated with health care providers regarding patient management relative to nutritional needs.

10. ICU

ICU means intensive care units. It also has a name known as the critical care unit or intensive therapy unit. The ICU handles patients experiencing acute diseases or severe injuries that need specialized treatment procedures by specific professionals.

Here's how dietetic interns use icu:
  • Acquired excellent interdisciplinary communication skills through ICU and nursing rounds.
  • Followed up with physician consults, educated patients on nutrition, and took part in IDT meetings and ICU rounds.

11. Community Nutrition

Here's how dietetic interns use community nutrition:
  • Designed community nutrition presentations introducing therapeutic alternatives to unhealthy behaviors.
  • Developed community nutrition education materials.

12. Acute Care

The branch of secondary healthcare which is responsible for giving short-term care to patients recovering from severe injuries or urgent medical problems is known as acute care. Acute care comprises multiple domains like; emergency care, urgent care, short-term stabilization, pre-hospital care, critical care, and trauma care.

Here's how dietetic interns use acute care:
  • Provided evidence-based nutrition interventions in the acute care environment.
  • Selected to complete a 12-weel clinical rotation at this 330 bed acute care facility, including 2 weeks of staff relief.

13. WIC

WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for women, Infants, and Children (WIC). It is a federal assistance program of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for nutrition and healthcare of low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children under the age of five. The mission is to partner with other services that are vital to childhood and family well-being.

Here's how dietetic interns use wic:
  • Created updated brochure for WIC regarding proper nutritional care during and following pregnancy, counseling for breastfeeding participants and encouraged breastfeeding.
  • Gained experience with USDA Federal Regulations and worked closely with WIC Nutritionists and participants to provide necessary services.

14. Nutrition Education Materials

Here's how dietetic interns use nutrition education materials:
  • Created point-of-sale nutrition education materials targeting healthier food options, as part of a hospital-wide study on health-conscious customer purchasing behavior.
  • Conducted an in-depth analysis of all nutrition education materials provided to patients at Coler-Goldwater and developed a strategy for enhancement.

15. Dietetic Interns

Here's how dietetic interns use dietetic interns:
  • Completed comprehensive 20-month ADA accredited dietetic internship with a Clinical focus, which included a variety of both inpatient and outpatient rotations
  • Coordinated intern schedules, developed classes and served as mentor in dietetic intern's development toward becoming Registered Dietitians.
top-skills

What skills help Dietetic Interns find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What dietetic internship skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Dr. Sandra Poirier

Professor, Website

* Definitely join the American Dietetic Association for networking and maintaining your RD certification.
* Volunteer to write articles for local newspapers to assist your community with knowledge about the importance of good nutrition throughout life.
* If you would like to travel and live internationally, there are many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) that are focused on feeding special populations globally.

What hard/technical skills are most important for dietetic internships?

Natalie Cooke PhD, RDN

Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs for Nutrition Science, North Carolina State University

Different fields in healthcare will have competencies that they expect their professionals to have mastered. For example, a working group from the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior created a list of Nutrition Educator Competencies for Promoting Healthy Individuals, Communities, and Food Systems (https://www.sneb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Competencies_Page_21.pdf). These competencies are organized into ten categories: (1) Basic Food and Nutrition Knowledge; (2) Nutrition Across the Lifecycle; (3) Food Science; (4) Physical Activity; (5) Food and Nutrition Policy; (6) Agricultural Production and Food Systems; (7) Behavior and Education Theory; (8) Nutrition Education Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation; (9) Written, Oral, and Social Media Communication; and (10) Nutrition Education Research Methods. A technical skill for a nutrition educator in the area of "Written, Oral, and Social Media Communication" is: "Engage and educate through simple, clear, and motivational language appropriate for diverse audiences." These technical or discipline-focused skills can be gained through engaging in internships and gaining work experience under the direction of nutrition educators and/or registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs).

One way to learn what hard/technical skills are required of jobs is to start looking at job descriptions years before planning to apply for a job. That way, a student can carefully select experiences to help develop those skills over time, making them a stronger applicant for the job they wish to apply for in the future.

List of dietetic internship skills to add to your resume

Dietetic internship skills

The most important skills for a dietetic internship resume and required skills for a dietetic internship to have include:

  • Patients
  • Diabetes Education
  • Medical Nutrition Therapy
  • Oncology
  • Nutrition Assessments
  • Long-Term Care
  • Food Production
  • Nutrition Care Process
  • Nutrition Support
  • ICU
  • Community Nutrition
  • Acute Care
  • WIC
  • Nutrition Education Materials
  • Dietetic Interns
  • Patient Care
  • General Medicine
  • Food Safety
  • Food Service Management
  • Clinical Nutrition
  • Critical Care
  • Parenteral Nutrition
  • Weight Loss
  • Public Health
  • Disease State
  • Patient Education
  • Nutritional Risk
  • Diet Education
  • Weight Management
  • Renal Disease
  • Cardiology
  • Clinical Rotations
  • Bariatric Surgery
  • Nutrition Interventions
  • GI
  • Allergies
  • Eating Disorders
  • Food Preparation
  • Hypertension
  • Menu Planning
  • MDS
  • TPN
  • Adime
  • Therapeutic Diets
  • USDA
  • Public Schools
  • Memorial Hospital
  • HACCP
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation
  • Heart Disease

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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