Program Schedule

In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) standards, dietetic students are required to complete 1,000 hours of supervised practice, of which 700 hours must be conducted in a professional workplace setting and 300 hours may come from alternate supervised experiences, including simulated case studies and role playing. The UMass Amherst supervised practice provides dietetic students with over 1,000 supervised hours in a workplace setting and nearly 100 hours of alternate supervised practice hours.

Food Service Management: Students will spend approximately 5 weeks (160 hours) in a food service management (FSM) rotation, gaining managerial experience in a food service environment. Most FSM rotations are located within school or health care systems. Other opportunities for FSM experience have included Meals-on-Wheels facilities, Veterans Affairs (VA), and Head Start programs. Students often complete their quality improvement project (i.e., PDSA) during the FSM rotation which may require time outside of normal working hours.

Community Nutrition: Students will spend approximately a total of 11 weeks (320 hours) in one or more community nutrition rotations. All students will spend time working with Rachel’s Table, a community organization that focuses on alleviating hunger and reducing food waste. There, students may assist with food recovery and distribution efforts, participate in gleaning and farm-to-table initiatives, and support nutrition education and community outreach projects. Students may also help evaluate program impact, develop culturally relevant nutrition materials, and collaborate with local agencies to promote equitable food access while gaining experience in sustainability and public health practice.

Additional experiences in community nutrition include WIC, supermarket/marketing (Big Y dietitians), elder services, and outpatient settings such as adolescent disordered eating and pediatric GI.

Clinical: Students spend 10 weeks (320+ hours) at Berkshire Medical Center working alongside RDs across a range of clinical specialties that support comprehensive patient care. Areas of practice include medical nutrition therapy for inpatient units such as critical care, cardiology, oncology, renal, surgical, and gastrointestinal services, as well as nutrition support for patients requiring enteral or parenteral feeding. Students will also spend time in outpatient clinics including diabetes management, weight management and Bariatric surgery, oncology, where they will collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to develop individualized nutrition care plans that promote healing, recovery, and long-term health. 

Other Experiences: In addition to the main rotations, students spend time at a Veterans Affairs (VA) in a short management rotation and obtain individual and group nutrition counseling experiences. They also select their own specialty rotation (i.e., plan your own) in an area of personal interest. While the students are encouraged to reach out to the individual preceptors (this encourages networking and fosters initiative), the director has a list of rotation options and contact information from which to choose. It is not expected that the students facilitate the PYO rotation solely on their own.

The estimated 32-hour/week rotations do not include travel time, homework on assignments or projects, or other outside preparation. There will be a two-week break during the Christmas and New Year holidays.