Sponsoring Site (Agency)
Where can I find a sponsoring site?
Are you currently employed in a health care setting? Are there registered dietitians or DTR’s employed there? Will your employer allow you to fulfill your supervised practice experience at your site? These are key questions to ask. Many times your current employer will support you in your quest for further education and licensure. Your employer would be the first place to ask. If you are not employed in a health care setting, contact the nearest hospital, nursing home, or health department to you. Make sure that there is either a registered dietitian or a DTR on staff who can serve as your preceptor. A site or Agency Agreement must be obtained before credit can be given for the field experience. Once a sponsoring site and a preceptor are identified, please contact the program director so that we can begin the Agency Agreement paperwork. You cannot be paid for the work you perform during your practicum hours. The practicum hours are learning exerperiences in which certain competencies must be met and mastered. As a result of being paid, you are an employee with a job description and specific tasks to complete that may be in conflict with what is expected of you to complete your practicum.
What does a sponsoring site have to do?
The sponsoring site is allowing you to obtain field experience at their facility. The course supplies the assignments and the site will provide the environment for you to complete the assignment in.
What does a preceptor do?
A preceptor can be a registered dietitian, a DTR or a food service supervisor for the food service practicums. Students may have different preceptors for different field experiences (courses). The preceptor is responsible for supervising and evaluating student’s work at the facility.
A copy of the preceptor's resume must be forwarded to the Program Director or NUTRI faculty. The director of the DTP will review each preceptor’s resume and confirm the eligibility of the preceptor for the student and supervised practice experience. Since the program is an online program, it will be very difficult for the director to physically evaluate each individual site. Paper/electronic/web sites review of the site will be conducted by the faculty. However, the student evaluation will be based on the preceptor’s evaluation. Thus, it is important to verify the preceptor’s credentials. Once a preceptor is identified and approved, the preceptor will determine the appropriateness of the facility (supervised practice site) in meeting the competencies for the student. The preceptor will work with the NUTRI faculty in determining the best approach if a certain function/task/activity is not available.
Attaining a sponsorship
Attaining a sponsorship is the most critical, and may be the most difficult part of this program. It is important that you are professional when you approach a potential sponsor. Be prepared and bring the Agency/sponsorship materials with you (obtain from the Program Director). Also be prepared to share your interest and enthusiasm about the dietetic profession. Make an appointment with the potential sponsor. Make sure you are on time, prepared, clean, and confident when you meet the sponsor. You want to make a good impression. Identify a preceptor from the sponsoring site. Remember, you may be working with this preceptor for the next 18-72 weeks.
What does a site need to have to qualify as a sponsoring site?
Requirements for the food service site:
Ideally the site should have a full-scale kitchen and food service able to handle large food production. It should provide service to large and small groups. It should have prep, production, and cleaning areas.
Examples of appropriate food service sites are: extended care facility or nursing home food service, school food service, college campus food service, sit-down restaurant food service, hospital kitchens, and Industrial and Business foodservice (cafeteria).
Activities that you will need to be able to complete and/or be exposed to at this site include: food preparation, food service, menu planning, scheduling of employees, ordering, purchasing, receiving, budgeting, equipment review, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), cleaning and sanitizing operations.
Preceptors for this site shall have one or more of the following credentials:
- Is a registered dietitian with a minimum of two years of work experience
- Is a registered dietetic technician with a minimum of two years of work experience
- Is an executive chef or a working chef in charge of operations that are not large enough to have an executive chef with a minimum of two years of work experience
- Is a foodservice supervisor with a minimum of two years of work experience
Requirements for the clinical site:
The site can be either a long-term or an acute care facility. Students need to have exposure with working with patients and a variety of diagnoses. Students also need to have access to patient’s chart for assessment and charting. Examples of appropriate clinical sites are: skilled nursing homes, health care centers, and hospitals
Activities that you will need to be able to complete and/or be exposed to include: interactions with patients and health care providers, access to patient’s medical charts, obtain food preferences, conduct nutritional screening and nutritional assessment, provide one-on-one and small group nutrition education, work with other health care providers as a team, conduct a case study, develop a nutritional care plan, implementation of the nutrition care plan, evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition care plan, conduct calorie counts, perform tube feeding calculations, menu checking for diabetic diets, low sodium diets, cardiac diets, high/low fiber diets, regular diets, renal diets, and other specialty diets.
Preceptors for this site shall have one or more of the following credentials:
- Is a registered dietitian with a minimum of two years work experience
Requirements for the community and/or wellness site:
The facility must be accustomed to providing nutrition classes to their clients.
Examples of community/wellness site: local health department, department of education, out patient clinics, rehabilitation centers, WIC departments, and Industry and Business health and wellness center.
Activities that you will need to be able to complete and/or be exposed to include:
Interaction with clients, access to client’s file, conduct nutritional screening and nutritional assessment, perform anthropometrics (e.g., height and weight) measurements, classroom/group education, perform a need assessment, develop a nutrition education tool (based on the need assessment), evaluate the effectiveness of the tool, and marketing strategy.
Preceptors for this site shall have one or more of the following credentials:
- A master’s degree in nutrition, education, or related field
- Is a registered dietitian
- Is a registered dietetic technician
- Is a supervisor/manager over the nutrition department
Note: all of these requirements can be met by one site. Please contact the Program Director for a copy of the Agency Agreement.