First cohort accepted for Accelerated Dietitian Nutritionist pilot program

After several years of preparation, this fall will mark the launch of the new Accelerated Dietitian Nutritionist Program at the UC College of Allied Health Sciences, with 10 students accepted to the pilot program. The innovative program enables students to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees and complete the required 1,200 hours of supervised practice in just five years. Graduate Program Director Sarah Couch, PhD, RDN, LDN, and Accelerated Dietitian Nutritionist Program Director John Pantel, MS, RDN, LDN, designed the new program in response to changes in the nutrition and dietetics field that require a master’s degree to take the registered dietitian nutritionist credentialing exam. 

“Dr. Couch was really instrumental in putting the curriculum together to change our current coordinated dietetics program from a four-year undergraduate degree to an accelerated five-year bachelor’s-to-master’s program with an internship intertwined,” Pantel says. “The traditional route to earn a master’s degree could take students seven years or longer, because it involves a four-year undergraduate degree, plus a yearlong internship, and then a two-year master’s degree. That’s the route most current dietitians with a graduate degree took."

Not only will students save time and money, they’ll also become stronger clinical dietitians, thanks to the accelerated program’s unique clinical nutrition concentration, quality improvement training, and integrated supervised practice experience. 

Although Couch had already started redesigning the curriculum by the time Pantel joined the team in 2017, Pantel spearheaded the supervised practice portion of the program, helping secure highly coveted semester-long clinical internships at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). Completing an extended, immersive, in-patient pediatric rotation at a top pediatric hospital in the country is a professional development experience students can’t find anywhere else, Pantel says.

Fortunately for Werling, Pantel says most students who have completed the supervised practice at CCHMC and applied to work there after graduation have been hired. This is a huge win for UC students, since CCHMC is home to the largest staff of dietitians in the country and there generally isn’t an abundance of dietitian jobs in pediatrics.

“The internship is a really good entryway possibility for students who finish that program because it gives them a leg up on other job applicants,” Pantel says. “Even if they don’t apply to Children’s right after graduation, it’s still advantageous to have pediatrics training if it’s something they would ever consider doing, and we’re excited to be able to continue offering this supervised practice experience in our new accelerated program format.”