NBAD Notice: Discontinuation of the Graduate Route / Self-Directed Internship Program

A working group within the NBAD Registration Committee were brought together to review the graduate route self-directed internship program in fall of 2015. The summary of the considerations and outcome of the completed process is as follows:

Background:
· A regulatory body’s primary mandate is regulation (not education) in the interest of protecting the public
· NBAD has offered a graduate route self-directed internship, dating back to 2007 or before; at which time most all provinces offered equivalent programs
· Since that time, all provinces but Ontario and Saskatchewan have stopped offering the self-directed internships. Other provinces support NBAD in following suit and discontinuing this program.
· Although NBAD has had few applicants (averaging less than 1 every 2 years) there were 3 such applicants to NBAD within the last 9 months, which lead the temporary suspension of the program in July 2015 so it could be reviewed and either updated or discontinued.

Working group’s recommendation:

The working group were provided background material, information from other regulatory bodies and participated in a teleconference October 8, 2015. After an involved discussion and consideration the working group has proposed discontinuing the NBAD graduate route / self-directed dietetic internship program.

Sited reasons:
· We have no quality control or competitive process to ensure candidates who apply are of high calibre or more deserving of the internship than any other
· We have a commitment to other provinces to ensure the standards of candidates, as well as the program are of the highest quality, consistently due to labour mobility agreement.
· Students going into dietetics are aware of the competitive process for securing an internship placement before entering their degree. NBAD is not responsible for this process

Going forward: The working group requested the support of the registration committee to accept the recommendation which the registration committee did vote to accept. The recommendation was brought to the November 7th, 2015 Board of Directors meeting and was passed by the Board. Communication to the ADNB-NBAD registrants on the change in policy happened 21st of November, 2015 via the NBAD Update.

Respectfully submitted,

Ellen MacIntosh R.D.
Registrar / Executive Director