Medical Nutrition Therapy Concentration
The term "medical nutrition therapy" (MNT) was introduced in 1994 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) to better articulate the nutrition therapy process. It is defined as the use of specific nutrition services to treat an illness, injury or condition and involves two phases:
- Assessment of the nutritional status of the client, and
- Treatment, which includes nutrition therapy, counseling and the use of specialized nutrition supplements
Our dietetic internship program provides 23 weeks of learning (more than 50 percent of all rotations) in the area of MNT. Students will learn to apply the nutrition care process to provide in-depth, individualized nutrition assessment and care for disease management.
Interns will be working in a variety of patient care units including cardiology, oncology, critical care, ICU, acute rehabilitation unit, behavioral units,organ and marrow transplant, bariatrics, pediatrics, etc. During MNT rotations, interns will be able to:
- Perform assessments/reassessments for patients in a wide variety of settings and complexities
- Diagnose nutritional problems, create nutrition diagnosis statement (PES statement)
- Plan and implement nutrition interventions (including patient education), formulate a nutrition prescription, establish goals
- Monitor and evaluate the nutritional problem, its causes, signs and symptoms and the effect of the nutritional interventions
- Provide patient centered, age specific and culturally-competent nutritional care for patients in an acute care/out patient setting
- Chart in electronic medical records
- Work with a multi-disciplinary teams
3 weeks of staff relief in the acute care setting will be required at the end of all MNT rotations as a capstone project
