A few people have asked me what classes I’m taking in the fall. I’ll be honest and say that I just signed up for the things I was told to sign up for back at the end of April and that was that. I didn’t even read the course descriptions until recently. The program I’m doing doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room so there’s no electives or anything.
I guess I should explain about the program I’m doing. It’s a Masters of Public Health in Nutrition, but it’s a coordinated program which means that in addition to the MPH I also do the coursework and internships to be registered dietitian while doing the MPH. You can become an RD in two ways. There’s the coordinated way where you get into a coordinated program and do the coursework and internships at the same time and then take the national written exam to actually be an RD. Or you can do a didactic program, which is just the coursework and then you do the internship after completing the coursework. There is a national match for these internships and they’re highly competitive. I heard once that 50% of people who enter the national match aren’t matched because there isn’t enough room. Plus you pay to do the internships. After you complete the internship you then get to take the exam and become an RD.
I knew I wanted to do a coordinated program, but there are only 23 accredited graduate coordinated programs in the US. And of those 23 only four offer an MPH rather than an MS. I wasn’t necessarily against getting an MS, but I felt like the MPH would make me more versatile and be better suited to my liberal arts undergraduate degree and all of the professional experiences I’ve had. Because I have to do the coursework and the internships at the same time there’s a very strict schedule I need to adhere to. And that’s the long story about how I came to be signed up for these classes!
Biostatistical Literacy
Develop ability to read/interpret statistical results in primary literature. Minimal calculation. No formal training in any statistical programming software.
Biostatistical Literacy will cover the fundamental concepts of study design, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, odds ratios, relative risks, adjusted models in multiple linear, logistic and Poisson regression, and survival analysis. The focus will be when to use a given method and how to interpret the results, not the actual computation or computer programming to obtain results from raw data.
Foundations of Public Health Nutrition Leadership
Principles of public health nutrition. Roles/functions of public health nutritionists. Programs/delivery mechanisms for promoting nutritional status of populations. Students explore their beliefs/competencies in relation to principles/philosophy of public health nutrition.
Child and Adolescent Nutrition
Current issues/literature. Major nutrition issues of youth. Biological, cultural, and psycho-social factors influencing food behaviors. Strategies for improving nutritional health.
Foundations of Interprofessional Professional Communication and Collaboration
Explore nature of/need for interprofessional communication, qualities of successful teams/interprofessional interactions, professional identity, ethics, integrity, values, communication/decision making in interprofessional environment.
Medical Nutrition Therapy I
Nutrition assessment and support. Pathology, management, and nutrition therapy for disorders of the gastrointestinal, immune, and respiratory systems, and cancer.
Predictably I am excited for the Child and Adolescent Nutrition and Medical Nutrition Therapy I classes. I am less excited for Biostatistical Literacy. I feel like my undergraduate extracurricular activities and working for the last eight years have taught me how to communicate and collaborate professionally, but I’m curious what the Foundations of Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration class will be like.
I will also be taking a Field Experience course which goes along with my internship, but there isn’t a description for that and I actually can’t sign up for it until I meet with the director of the program in September.
Maggie in Minnesota 