Duke University Hospital FG Nutrition and Dietetics Program

Graduate Degree Program in Biomedical Sciences

General Information

The Duke University Hospital Nutrition and Dietetics program is a 14 month future graduate program Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) https://www.eatrightpro.org/acend of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The address and telephone number of ACEND is 120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60606-6995, 312-899-0040 (ext. 5400).

The Duke University Hospital Nutrition and Dietetics Program consists of two components. The first is a master’s degree; the Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) in partnership with the Duke University School of Medicine Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) Program.

For further details about the MBS program and how to apply,  please visit https://medschool.duke.edu/education/degree-programs-and-admissions/mast....

The second component is an experiential component of mentored nutritional experiences. This program fully meets ACEND’s FEM standards to
prepare graduates to be experts in the field of Nutrition and Dietetics with a strong foundation from an interprofessional master’s degree.

The MBS program, which is housed in the Duke School of Medicine; a professional school located within Duke University, and the experiential
component of mentored nutritional experiences will take place at Duke University Hospital, and other Duke Health facilities.  Duke University School of Medicine and the Duke University Hospital are conceptually both integrated within Duke Health. Duke Health delivers the highest quality
patient-centered care, accelerates translatable research discoveries, and develops innovative educational paradigms to drive improved health of
individuals and the community

Please note due to COIVD-19 the ACEND board has temporarily reduced the required number of supervised practice hours for programs accredited under the ACEND 2017 Accreditation Standards from 1200 hours to 1000 hours for RDN programs (CP, DI, FDE, IDE, DPD with ISPP), and from 450 hours to 375 hours for NDTR programs, for the period starting January 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2022.

Duke University Hospital is a full-service tertiary and quaternary care hospital, licensed for 957 acute care beds and is accredited by JCAHO. It is a
teaching hospital that is known for providing cutting edge research and medical care. The Nutrition Department is committed to fostering the highest quality learning experience for interns in order to support the advancement of the profession of nutrition and dietetics.

The program will start in June and conclude in August. Students will graduate with a Masters in Biomedical Sciences, will receive a verification
statement confirming 1000 hours of experiential learning in clinical nutrition, community, food service and administrative area, and will earn an
EMT certificate, upon completion of those hours.
Graduates of this program will fulfill ACEND’s FEM standard and will be eligible to sit for CDR Registration Exam for Dietitians.

Program Mission

The program’s mission is to provide the highest quality education to a diverse group of individuals in an interprofessional and collaborative
environment which prepares graduates as competent Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and life-long learners. The graduates will learn evidence-based,
compassionate, nutrition therapy to improve the health of the individual and community. The program attains its core values through
innovative scientific research, rapid translation of breakthrough discoveries, educating future leaders in clinical dietetics, and advocating and
practicing evidenced-based medical nutrition therapy.

Goals and Outcome Measures

Goal #1: The Future Model Graduate Program will prepare competent graduates who are ready for entry-level positions in the field of nutrition and
dietetics.

• At one year after program completion 80% of program graduates surveyed will rate their preparation for an entry-level position as satisfactory or above.
•  At one year after program completion 80% of program graduates will be employed in their field.

Goal #2: The Future Model Graduate Program graduates will be life-long learners and future scholars and leaders.

• Fifty percent of the graduates will be members of a committee or hold office in a professional or community organization or serve as faculty
• Fifty percent of the graduates will have advance certification within 5 years
• Twenty five percent of the graduates will have one or more publications accepted for peer review within 5 years.

Upon request the information on outcomes data will be made available to the students, prospective students, public and ACEND reviewers.

Experiential Learning Hours:

This program offers over 1000 hours of experiential learning in 5 areas:
Clinical Nutrition hours: 612 hours, (132 longitudinal hours woven into didactic course work, 480 hours completed during the last semester rotating
with the clinical dietitians at Duke University Hospital. These hours will provide an understanding of the role of a clinical dietitian. The students will
have hands on experience counseling and assessing patients of all ages from neonates to geriatrics and will gain an in-depth understating of various
disease states and their nutritional implication. These learning hours will culminate into staff relief where students will work as an entry level dietitian under a preceptor’s supervision.

Cadavor Dissection: (48 hours total of dissection work) Each of the 8 weeks of this course focuses on one region of the body. This course
entails a weekly 90 minute lecture specific to the area of the body that they will be dissecting, in addition to iRA’s and tRA’s to assess their
knowledge. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday there are two hour dissection labs, where they are performing hands-on dissections.

Community hours: These forty hours will be covered longitudinally during the fall semester. Students may be placed in various
community settings within Duke Health including Student Health, Live for Life, Health, Physical Education and Wellness or choose to focus on one area.

Leadership Hours: These twelve hours will be covered longitudinally throughout the program. Students will rotate with the Duke University Hospital leadership team and will be completing various leadership activities.

Food Service Hours: Students will meet their food service competencies in two week long (eighty hours) food service rotation at Duke University Hospital patient food service.

EMT
The goal of HLTSCI.511.01.F20 is to allow students to gain certification as an Emergency Medical Technician and to practice in that capacity as a member of health care team

Students will achieve the following objectives:

• Successfully complete the EMT -B Course offered by Durham Tech
• Demonstrate professional behavior and course content proficiency throughout experience both virtual and in-person at Durham Tech
• Gain enhanced skills from additional course work/simulation offered by Dr. Francis in the Division of Emergency Medicine and his colleagues.
• Register for and pass the NC State EMT -B Certification Exam and submit documentation of NC State EMT certification exam scores and EMT-  B "certificate" to the Duke MBS Program.
• Clinical experiences, a minimum of 12 hours per month (12 shifts) from October through early May. These will be scheduled during EMT training as well as after passage of NC State certification and submission of certificate. Up to 6 clinical shifts may be substituted with contact tracing for COVID-19 (while applicable). Additional shifts will likely be performed during Durham Tech classes.

Graduation Requirements

The student must meet graduation requirements within 19.5 months of the start date. To graduate, students must complete with a passing grade
the 38 credits required for the Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences degree to include all required courses, clinical and nutrition experiential
learning requirements. Candidates must apply to the graduate program through ACES in keeping with the instructions and deadlines announced by the
Office of the Registrar in the School of Medicine. Failure to do so may delay conferral of the degree and issuance of the diploma, even if all degree
requirements have been met. Upon successful completion of the program a degree in Masters in Biomedical Sciences and a verification statement
will be given on the final day, indicating that the student is eligible to become an active member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and to
sit for the national registration exam for dietitians administered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) and obtain state licensure by
North Carolina Board of Dietetics and Nutrition and many other states. Visit https://www.cdrnet.org/state-licensure for
further information on state licensure

"Effective January 1, 2024, the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) will require a minimum of a master’s degree to be eligible to take the credentialing exam to become a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN). In order to be approved for registration examination eligibility with a bachelor’s degree, an individual must meet all eligibility requirements and be submitted into CDR's Registration Eligibility Processing System (REPS) before 12:00 midnight Central Time, December 31, 2023. For more information about this requirement visit CDR's website: https://www.cdrnet.org/graduatedegree. In addition, CDR requires that individuals complete coursework and supervised practice in program(s) accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND). Graduates who successfully complete the ACEND-accredited [program type] program at [Institution name] are eligible to [apply to an ACEND-accredited supervised practice program/apply to take the CDR credentialing exam to become an RDN].

In most states, graduates also must obtain licensure or certification to practice. For more information about state licensure requirements click here.

For more information about educational pathways to become a RDN click here."

Program Contact Information

Duke University Hospital FG Nutrition and Dietetics Program
Duke University Hospital
DUMC Box 3655
Durham, NC 27710

seema.desai@duke.edu

Seema Desai MS, RD, LDN 
Director of Dietetic Internship
Phone: 919-668-6136
Fax: 919-681-9575