Strategies for Addressing the Internship Shortage and Lack of Ethnic Diversity in Dietetics

Abstract

IN MARCH 2002, THE Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care reported that the quality of care in the United States is generally lower for people perceived as coming from communities of ethnic minorities than that provided to the majority population.1 Racial and ethnic disparities have been associated with worse health outcomes.2 Subsequently, in March 2011, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the Academy; formerly the American Dietetic Association) related the IOM recommendations to dietetics practitioners.