A Qualitative Study of Dietetic Students Completing Internship in a Dietetic Technician Program

<p>The purpose of this study was to explore the view of dietetic students and their preceptors concerning the supervised practice experience. Guiding questions for this study were: (1) dynamics of learning in the work place setting, (2) dietetic students' technical ability to complete the activities expected of them in the work place, (3) dietetic students' socialization into the field site experience, including how well the students were accepted by other staff, (4) expectations of the preceptor prior to working with student dietetic technicians, (5) students' and preceptors' expectations of the DT program coordinator, (6) students' and preceptors' satisfaction with the supervised practice experience, (7) and the stress level experienced by the students during the supervised practice.</p> <p>The study followed seven dietetic students as they completed the supervised field experience component of the dietetic technician program. The study included direct observation of the students in the field sites as well as in-depth interviews with each student individually and in small groups. Supervised practice preceptors were interviewed two times during the experience. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Observations of students in the supervised practice were recorded in a narrative format. The data generated from the field notes and the interviews were coded and common themes were sought. Quotations from the data were used to support the themes generated from the research. In order to identify differences in the expectations of the students and each preceptor, views of each group were compared and contrasted.</p> <p>The conclusions of this study are grounded in the collected observations of the dietetic interns and their preceptors. Internship allowed students to develop the skills of a practicing dietetic technician. The internship was beneficial to the preceptors who updated skills and completed projects because of the contributions of the interns to the health care facility.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Teaching & Learning

Year

1998

Author dc:creator

• Stewart, Sharon Spicer

• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.und.edu/theses/799

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.und.edu:theses-1801