1. The Internship Process: How Technology and Innovation are Your Best Practice
Amanda Holliday, MS, RD, LDN
Clinical Assistant Professor Program Director, MPH/RD Program Co-Chair, MPH Committee The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and UNC School of Medicine

2. Objective: By the end of the presentation participants will have learned about a new innovative technology program for tracking interns through the Dietetics Internship process. I will explain how this program tracks students through their rotations, aids communication between instructors, preceptors, and interns, and facilitates the ACEND reporting process.

3. The task of keeping track of students through the Dietetics Internship process is a challenge at best, and becomes more so as reporting demands get more stringent. The task is even more challenging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where 24 students run through each cohort and up to three cohorts are working in the field in any given year. In order to improve our tracking, we turned to technology. In collaboration with the Sheps Center for Health Services Research, also at UNC, we have developed a web-based tool called PRISM.

4. My dream…
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5. The Future
As we all know, ACEND is moving towards a purely competency based model for all ACEND accredited programs by the year 2020 (?).

6. This competency based education model allows each program to track what each student knows, what the student still needs to learn, and where the program can improve. In this system, students will demonstrate competency in their skills through performance indicators at each level of acquisition. The student will be required to demonstrate not only knowledge, but will also need to demonstrate that they how to integrate this skill into their practice. This also means that each student will need to be measured in a range of activities, all of which need to be recorded and collected for reporting.

7. Evaluation
One of the most important features of PRISM is that it is an invaluable tool in the evaluation and reporting process. Preceptors can easily access PRISM from wherever they are to fill out survey style evaluations on students they are working with. Each evaluation question is linked to an ACEND competency and can be reported in that way.

8. Communication
It also has a feature for secure communication between instructors, students, and/or preceptors and allows for students to be followed beyond graduation to assist with ACEND and other reporting requirements

9. Scheduling and Tracking Hours
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10. Reporting
This also means that the burden of data collection and reporting will be more cumbersome as we transition to this new system, and as program directors we will NEED a tool to collect and process all of this data.

11. That is where PRISM comes in
That is where PRISM comes in. Through PRISM we have harnessed web technology to improve the internship process by streamlining these administrative tasks. We think this will allow us to modernize our field for the future in both health care and education.
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12. PRISM:
The ability to house all basic student, site, and preceptor information in one place
The ability to gather onboarding documents for students (immunizations, HIPAA forms, life support and other certifications, etc.) and make visible to internship site managers, so that onboarding "packages" no longer need to be sent to Human Resources departments
The ability to assign students and preceptors to specific rotations and sites to monitor student placement and activities
The ability to assign students to Specialties within their rotations (i.e. cardiology, critical care, etc.) and to assign specific preceptors or site managers to evaluate them within each specialty
The ability to assign "deliverables" (coursework, assignments, etc.) to students by uploading them; students then download, complete, and upload complete work. PRISM shows student progress on these (Pending, Submitted, and Graded)
The ability to load Resources for students to use throughout their rotations (readings, links, detailed assignment instructions, etc.)
The ability to assign Journal posts (blog-like posts) to students so that they are able to privately and securely communicate their experiences with their instructors and their classmates, and to give feedback on others' experiences
The ability to send messages to individual users or groups of users (e.g. all Public Health preceptors, all Advanced students, etc.) and to have an sent to each user with a note that they have a message waiting in PRISM.

13. PRISM:
A semi-custom evaluation tool that tracks all K/CRDNs required of each type of program. 
Schools will see a list of the competencies, and will be able to write their own evaluation questions for each, using each ONE time and tying it to a specific rotation/activity.
These will then be put into short evaluation forms that are completed electronically by assigned preceptors and/or instructors. 
Evaluation reports will then be available to track outcomes for all K/CRDNs.

14. PRISM: In the next month
The ability to have students and preceptors in more than one rotation/site at a time.
The ability to create custom surveys, via integrated Qualtrics, in order to electronically evaluate student progress in various rotations, skills, etc. There is likely to be some simple reporting available via Qualtrics, but there will be no evaluation reports built from these surveys--it is simply a way for instructors to assess and monitor the progress of their students and give them feedback.
The ability for preceptors/site managers to load their CVs, site contracts, and other confidential documentation into "Records" stored with their User accounts. We will explore a way to have site contracts attached to specific sites, rather than to User accounts, and for contract expiration dates to be noted (perhaps, at some point, a reminder sent nearing contract expiration).

15. Questions?