The program fulfills an established need for supervised practice training in the northwest part of the United States. Many ISU graduates of the Didactic Program in Dietetics are married and have families, which makes it difficult for them to consider an internship in another part of the country. Therefore, most ISU graduates apply only to the ISU internship. We currently accept only 4 new dietetic interns each semester. Expanding the internship opportunity to Boise will provide more practice sites and seats for graduates of ISU for supervised practice.
Supervised practice is essential to obtain an entry level position in the field of dietetics.
Currently, all graduates of the internship program who desire employment have secured positions. Department proposes an expansion to Boise of the Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology, to begin in August, 2001. We offer this coursework currently through interactive compressed video distance learning. Students at both public and private higher education institutions in the Treasure Valley need access to a B.S. in SPA program locally. ISU is in the best position to provide a feeder function to the existing graduate program in SPA in Boise.