The term "medical nutrition therapy (MNT)" was introduced in 1994 by the American Dietetic Association 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:

1. assessment of the nutritional status of the client, and 
2. treatment, which includes nutrition therapy, counseling, and the use of specialized nutrition supplements

Our dietetic internship program provides 22 weeks of learning [more than 50% 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 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 PES statements
• 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 impact 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