Program Overview

Doctor of Clinical Nutrition (DCN)

Overview

The Doctor of Clinical Nutrition (DCN) program is designed to provide dietitians in Texas with an option to obtain a practice-centered doctorate. This program will help Texas move forward towards its goal of increasing the number of citizens with postsecondary credentials.

Marketable Skills

The DCN program will target students' interpersonal, cognitive, and applied skills. Successful graduates will be prepared with marketable skills and be recognized as content experts with enhanced credibility and ethical practice. Specifically, graduates will be able to:

• Practice as an advanced dietetic practitioner with expert-level competency in the application of the Nutrition Care Process.
• Conduct comprehensive nutrition-focused physical examinations and interpret results using investigative reasoning and standardized language.
• Incorporate advanced knowledge and techniques for identifying characteristics of malnutrition in practice.
• Integrate foundational nutritional knowledge with critical appraisal to resolve or improve nutrition intervention.
• Collaborate as the nutrition expert with other healthcare practitioners, industry partners, and academia.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of evidence-based applications for nutrition interventions and practice.
• Apply and adopt a global perception to professional practice by integrating cultural interpretations of food and nutrition into practice applications.
• Demonstrate leadership by mentoring and training others in nutrition practices in diverse practice settings.
• Apply innovative and adaptive skills in creating and disseminating sound nutrition information to the public.
• Demonstrate competence in interpretation and critique of scientific health-related care literature using evidence-analysis methodology.
• Design, conduct, analyze, and disseminate quality improvement and/or nutrition outcomes research projects.
• Apply health behavior and educational counseling theories in research applications.

Program Details

The DCN program is part of the School of Health Professions at the University of Texas Medical Branch. The program aims to provide advanced education in clinical nutrition, preparing graduates for leadership roles in the field.

Academics

The program includes a range of academic courses and research opportunities, designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in clinical nutrition.

Research

The program emphasizes the importance of research in clinical nutrition, providing students with opportunities to design, conduct, and analyze research projects.