Distance Internships

When I was in my undergrad, I heard mostly about traditional dietetic internships and never considered a distance internship.  For those of you who don’t know, I did not apply to internships as a senior in college. Despite my college having an amazing professor that assisted and guided students through the application process, I wasn’t ready on a personal level.  I also didn’t think my grades or lack of clinical experience would match up to the competition of getting into a California internship.  So I graduated June 2012 and moved back to my hometown in July.  It took until the end of September to find a job where I worked at a hospital as a diet aid, diet clerk, and later as a DTR when I got certified in December.

I didn’t consider a distance internship until January 2013 when I was volunteering at WIC and met a student interning from a distance internship (the same school I’m in now!)  At that time I was planning on applying to one traditional internship at a school within driving distance from where I was living, and I wasn’t feeling confident about getting into that program or any other programs in California.  She told me about various distance internship programs and told me I would totally get in (I was still doubtful).  I later hopped on the internet and looked up various distance programs; I took into account (in order of importance) minimum GPA/grades, what the internship concentrated on (i.e. clinical, public health, food service, school lunch programs, etc.), cost, and length of program.  Location was no longer a factor since it was distance, although most programs have you visit for an orientation week.

For those of you in your senior year of undergrad wanting to apply to internships this upcoming February: if you currently go to school in an area you would potentially stay in post grad for an internship obviously you would look for preceptors and facilities in that area.  On the other hand, if you are moving back home and plan on doing a distance internship down there it makes things a tad difficult, not impossible, but a little more effort.  I say this because some preceptors may want to meet you in person and that would require driving home possibly on a weekday when you may need to be in class.

Pros:

• Higher amount of admitted students: distance internships tend to admit a higher amount of students than traditional programs.  I would say traditional programs admit on average 10-14 interns a year whereas distance internships tend to admit over 20.  In fact my internship accepted upwards of 50.

• Pick your schedule: for my internship, I got to pick when I started.  I started in June as a summer student but could have started in fall or winter. 

• Pick your own facilities: in a distance internship, you are responsible for finding your own preceptors and facilities for each rotation.  A preceptor is usually an RD or sometimes someone else in the field that you work under at each facility. Although I also list this under cons since it is time consuming, in picking your own facilities you may find some that are more conveniently located than others and you can kinda specialized to your interest (i.e. for outpatient I chose a diabetes center over dialysis center or eating disorder center) 

Cons:

• Pre-recorded lectures: if your learning style is best suited toward physically sitting in a class with a teacher in front of you, a distance internship may be difficult.  My program has online lectures that can be up to two hours and I find you must be very, very disciplined to pay attention because no one else is holding you responsible to not look at your phone, go on Pinterest, etc. Not all programs offer lectures though, and I find mine to be extremely beneficial.  There are some pros to pre-recorded lectures because you can hit the pause button or go back if you like (you can also watch them in the comfort of your own home wearing PJ’s or outside with a glass of wine!)

• Camaraderie: in a traditional internship, you get to spend a year with other interns in your program.  I miss that in a distance internship. However, I got to meet 50+ interns all over the country at my orientation! I even met some interns in my area and stay in touch with everyone else over Facebook and email.  I did get to work closely with interns from other programs when I was at my inpatient rotation which was a fantastic experience.

• Finding facilities/preceptors: ok, I think this is the top reason people get discouraged from distance internships.  Yes, it is hard and time consuming.  Yes, it is possible! It just requires time and persistence. My program provided a list of preceptors used in the past in my state which was very helpful and where I found 3 of my 5 preceptors.  If you have been working in the field, you could as a boss or supervisor to be a preceptor. My recommendations:

-START EARLY! Applications are typically due mid February and most distance internships require you have all rotations lined up with preceptors when you apply.  I would start as early as possible, aiming to have everything in place by January.  Take it from me, I started looking for preceptors in January when I decided to apply to distance internships and it was REALLY STRESSFUL!  You don’t have to have a date for when you will be there, but you do need confirmation from them and affiliation agreements if they haven’t precepted for your program before.   First reason you should start early-people may say no.  Second reason-preceptors will not want to take and physically cannot take on too many interns.  You don’t want to wait too long and find a preceptor that would have said yes but will have to turn you down because they already have too many potential interns.  Third reason-if they say yes, there may be some paperwork on the preceptor’s part and you want to be able to give them ample time for that.

-CALL > EMAIL! I would call first and email as a last resort.  You could always call, leave a voicemail, and follow-up with an email.  If I sent emails, I kept them brief but explained that I was applying to programs, list the programs, and attach my current resume.

-DON’T GIVE UP! As difficult as I found the process, after talking to interns from other states I met at orientation I realized it could have been a lot more difficult.  I met an intern from Hawaii who said it was extremely difficult finding preceptors but even she made it work! So no excuses! Remember this is your dream and future.

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• Direct communication: obviously in a distance internship you can’t talk to your teachers/directors in person after class or in office hours.  However I have never had issues with communication by emailing or calling my directors if I have questions about nutrition, my assignments, or rotations.  

Overall, I am very satisfied with my distance internship.  It is very independent, but that does not take away from the internship experience at all.  I would highly encourage a distance internship to someone, just know it takes extra time in preparation since you are responsible for finding your own preceptors and rotations.  Please let me know if you have specific questions about distance programs! I plan on posting about the different rotations in my next post.