The University of Virginia Health System Nutrition Support Traineeship is a one-week clinical experience designed to provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based information, in a practical, hands-on setting. The emphasis is on the adult patient who requires enteral and/or parenteral nutrition support in the acute care setting, but also includes planning for the transition to home nutrition support.

Participants are on-site for five days, and the traineeship is limited to two to four people at a time in order to allow individual attention, and to meet the specific learning goals of each professional. During the traineeship week the experiences are structured with time spent observing and participating in completing nutrition support consults, nutrition team rounds, review of syllabus modules, case studies and questions. Methods for critically evaluating research are discussed, as well as “tricks of the trade” for literature review, and staying up to date. Current research articles are critically evaluated and reviewed in a group journal club as well as in daily rounds. In addition, emphasis is placed on how current research can be translated into practice at the participant’s home facility.

All trainees receive a comprehensive evidence-based syllabus that addresses nutrition assessment, monitoring, critical care nutrition, enteral and parenteral nutrition, fluid, electrolytes, acid-base, and interpreting/evaluating medical research and more. Modules are fully referenced, based on the most current evidence-based information, and provide a template for education at the bedside.

Trainees may choose to attend lectures of interest that occur within the Health System during their traineeship week, or have additional discussions about specific topics (hepatic, renal, critical care, GI, electrolytes, etc), or brainstorming sessions about specific “clinical conundrums”. Other optional experiences may include a PubMed class at our excellent Health Science Library, or observation of GI and/or fluoroscopic procedures.

The Tyco scholarship covers the cost of the program tuition fee, which includes the fully referenced base syllabus, and five full days of instruction. The scholarship recipient is only responsible for transportation to and from Charlottesville, accommodations and meals during the traineeship. The traineeship is approved for 40 ADA credit hours; an official certificate will be given to those already on the ADA Professional Development Portfolio. For more information about the UVAHS Nutrition Support Traineeship:
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/dietitian/dh/traineeship.cfm