Mondays are such wonderful days to start fresh and get back on track.
Not that I’ve been that off track {besides the whole blogging thing…}.
In fact, I’ve been, for the most part, incredibly busy.
Let’s see…
I last left you in December.
Cue: blurry flash back and twilight zone music
I had finished up my School Food Service Rotation and moved on to Community Health Centers with a kickass RD.
This rotation focused on counseling pregnant women {with or without diabetes} to ensure they were getting adequate nutrition, understood pregnancy food risks (mercury, foodborne illnesses, etc.), and helped troubleshoot any of those pesky pregnancy side-effects.
She threw me right in to counseling clients on the first day. It was thrilling {and slightly frightening}! During this rotation, I became quite intimate with the exchange system, pregnancy weight gain guidelines, medications/supplements approved for pregnancy, foods to avoid/incorporate, gestational diabetes recommendations… gosh, I could keep going.
Needless to say, I learned a ton.
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Then it was home for Christmas break…
Home sweet home.
Hometown lovin’. So hard.
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Next up! My 10-week Clinical Rotation! {The main reason I have been absent.}
Once again, I was thrown right in. Starting with 2-3 patients working my way to a full load of 12-15 per day.
I went in to Clinical thinking that this was an area that I probably wouldn’t pursue as a future career, but surprise, surprise- I l.o.v.e.d. it!
Maybe it was the brand spankin’ new hospital, the supportive interdisciplinary team, or the incredibly helpful, patient, and intelligent RDs who I worked with… My experience was steller.
I also have to give a big shout out to my undergrad MNT education at RIT – I came in to Clinical so prepared.
And even though, I’ve finished my 10 weeks, I’ll be back for more – 2 weeks of staff relief in June and I’ll be sporadically working on a menu planning project for my elective.
If you have any specific questions about my different specialty rotations at the hospital feel free to contact me.
Can someone buy me this mousepad?
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Currently, I am rotating at WIC {Women, Infants, and Children}.
Lemme tell you, WIC is way more than just breastfeeding and food vouchers.
A big part of the dietitian’s jobs is meeting the requirements of the various different grants that fund their salaries – this includes food demonstrations, nutrition education classes, dentistry, and other community-based nutrition/health/wellness programs.
I’m learning a lot about government nutrition programs and being exposed to a wide variety of issues. Certainly eye-opening and interesting.
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Whew! I think we are up to speed now.
Looking forward- I have a mere 3 months till DI graduation. Where has the time gone?
I’m going to do my best to bring you more frequent updates – I’m thinking I could handle weekly or biweekly posts.
We’ll see how it goes… ha!
Until then!
