Medical Nutrition Therapy Concentration

M Health Fairview represents a collaboration between University of Minnesota Physicians, University of Minnesota Medical Center, and Fairview Health Services. Intern clinical rotations occur at East Bank, West Bank, Southdale, Ridges, St. John's, and Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub (previously St. Joseph's Hospital).

Watch an overview of the MNT Concentration from the MNT DI Coordinator: Kristen Priore, MS, RDN, LD

Clinical – 22 weeks

The term “medical nutrition therapy” (MNT) was introduced in 1994 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to better articulate the nutrition therapy process. It is defined as the use of specific nutrition services to treat an illness, injury or condition and involves two phases:

  1. Assessment of the nutritional status of the client, and
  2. Treatment, which includes nutrition therapy, counseling and the use of specialized nutrition supplements

Interns will be in a variety of M Health Fairview hospitals and patient care units, including cardiology, diabetes, oncology, critical care, ICU, acute rehabilitation, solid organ or bone marrow transplant, bariatrics, pediatrics, and others. Additional clinical experiences may include DaVita Kidney Care locations and/or Long-Term Care facilities. During clinical rotations, interns will be able to:

  • Perform assessments/ reassessments for patients in a wide variety of settings and complexities
  • Diagnose nutritional problems and create nutrition diagnosis statements (PES statements)
  • Plan and implement nutrition interventions (including patient education), formulate a nutrition prescription, establish goals
  • Monitor and evaluate the nutritional problem, its causes, signs and symptoms and the effect of the nutritional interventions
  • Provide patient-centered, age-specific and culturally-competent nutritional care for patients in an acute care and outpatient setting
  • Chart in electronic medical records
  • Work with multi-disciplinary teams

Three weeks of practicum experiences in the acute care setting will be required after the completion of all clinical rotations.

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