As a young child, my parents would always tell me not to waste the time I was given as you can never get it back. That, and time goes by faster and faster each year. I sit here thinking about that while reflecting on the fact that I have completed 4 (and a half) years of university and I am 5 and a half weeks from being done my internship. They really were not kidding. I am now back in the Sault after completing two and a half weeks of a rural nutrition rotation with Huron Shores Family Health Team in Blind River. I definitely got the full effect of what an RD might do in a rural setting, seeing as my preceptor works in 2 long term care facilities, acute care and in the family health team completing outpatient counselling. It was a very busy couple of weeks that really tested my ability to multitask, prioritize and adapt to different settings. However it also allowed me to gain additional insight on specific medications and their impact on continuous enteral nutrition regimes, further develop my motivational interviewing skills, help clients understand the 'why' behind their food choices (a personal favourite of mine), discuss the science/evidence behind the ketogenic diet (had a group of older adults request that I speak to them about it), and really understand the role of an RD in a long term care setting. I really have no complaints about my rotation, however it is nice to be back home in my own apartment after being away for 6 weeks.
Time to switch gears once again as I start my last rotation tomorrow - pediatric nutrition. As much work as I know it will be, I am excited to broaden my knowledge of nutrition management of specific populations to include the little ones! Plus they are pretty cute :)
Hope everyone is enjoying this hot (and humid) weather!
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Today marks the end of my Community Nutrition/Aboriginal Health placement with Nipissing First Nations Health Services, the end of my third to last rotation. Today also was the first time I genuinely felt sad leaving a placement. The health team at NFN and the community of Garden Village made me feel welcome, and a member of their community. They didn't treat me simply like an inexperienced intern, but instead like an equal who brought unique knowledge and skills to their team. The community of Garden Village were always open to answering my questions, allowing me to attend traditional ceremonies and gain a deeper understanding on First Nations cultures, traditions and belief systems. During my short 4 week's with NFN, I was able to:
I loved being able to blend my love for cooking and teaching food skills with nutrition! I find that it is easy to discuss nutrition with clients when you are in the kitchen with them. It also provides an opportunity for knowledge and skill sharing, and a way to build rapport with clients and the community as a whole. My preceptor Erika, was an amazing mentor, allowing me plenty of independence to develop and deliver my own programs to the community, and was always there to provide me with support and guidance so that I could gain an understanding of the role of the community dietitian. I also had the pleasure of working with the Maternal Child Care Nurse and one of the health promoters during my time. For my last day, the health team surprised me with a fish fry/potluck and plenty of going away gifts. Stella, the health promoter, gifted me a wooden recipe box with a few recipes inside. On the back of each recipe card was a picture of me in my hair net from my cooking workshops.. what a little family I gained! So much for blogging after each rotation… 6 months have past since I have written something. Let me give a bit of a recap – since my public health rotation, I have completed:
People were not exaggerating when they stated that internship was an emotional roaster coaster. Over the past 8 months and 5 rotations, I have felt everything from extremely accomplished and proud, to extremely unprepared; as if everything that I had ever learned somehow disappeared. That’s the thing about spending 4-6 weeks in a certain specialization; you start out knowing near nothing, and by the end of it you are (somewhat) competent. But then you start that loop all over again with a new rotation, with a new preceptor, in a new establishment or new unit of the hospital, with a new focus. This constant rollercoaster has been a rough go, but it has also been an opportunity for professional growth. All this change, all the time, has allowed me to demonstrate flexibility, determine more effective stress management tactics (and no that does not include stress-crying in the hospital cafeteria – promised myself that was a one time deal), and figure out how to form close relationships with preceptors and other health professionals in order to better serve the clients I work with. During these past 8 months I have been able to narrow down my future career goals. I know with all my heart that I DO NOT want a career in food service management. After the (very very) long 6 weeks I spent in that rotation, and many situations that tested my coping abilities, I do not plan on looking back. I did however, have the opportunity to work on my “conflict and difficult conversations at work” approaches – guess in a way that’s a plus! Glass half full right? On a more positive note, I have begun to recognize my passion for outpatient counselling and assisting individuals in recognizing triggers for certain food/eating behaviours, and working with them to make healthy sustainable changes. I love motivational interviewing and intuitive eating principles, and fully plan on utilizing these in my future practice. Looking ahead at the months to come – three to be exact - I am excited. Excited to be starting my Aboriginal Health rotation on Monday. Excited to be leaving the Sault for a short period of time. Excited to continue to grow my skills as a health professional. And excited to be a step closer to a career in the field of dietetics that I love (oh and to making money finally). While I was travelling Europe this summer, I learned how beneficial it is to take time to reflect; both reflecting on myself as a person, what I am grateful for in life and the experiences that I have been able to have in the past 23 years. As a child I LOVED to journal. I have journals upon journals of my hopes, wishes and life goals sitting in a hope chest back home. Reflecting on what you have done/seen/liked/disliked is a great way to grow as a person and as a professional. I have decided to take some time at the end of each of my placements during these next 10 months of internship to reflect on what I have learned, interesting experiences I had and what I did not like.
The first couple weeks of placement were a big learning curve. I learned all about situational assessments, program planning, implementation and evaluation, the hierarchy structure of public health units, yearly program budgets, and many other things but I won’t bore you with them... on to a bit of reflection! 6 interesting things I learned/did within my placement at APH: 1. I learned that public health has SO MANY food models!! For those of you that do not understand why I was so excited when I found the hundreds of food models at APH… these things costs a fortune. I am not exaggerating: http://www.ncescatalog.com/Food-Models_c_14.html 2. I learned that many nurses, and other health professionals do not understand what a dietetic intern is, what a dietetic internship entails, or the full scope of a dietitian. I was introduced by nurses on multiple occasions as "an intern who is working with dietitians to learn what they do so she can be one," or "a registered dietitian in training student," " or I was asked how many more years of college I had left... 3. I was able to attend 3 Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) Clinics This was a very interesting experience for me as it showed that as a public health dietitian, you don’t have to give up one-on-one counselling with clients. The weekly CPNP clinics allow for the dietitians to check in with high-risk mothers to see how their pregnancy is going, provide them with some nutrition education, and a food bag and milk coupons. 4. I was able to assist in educating a kindergarten class on proper hand-washing. Myself and one of the Public Health RDs went into a kindergarten class to show them how to properly wash their hands during my first week at APH. I always forget how adorable/chaotic the little ones are (and how they do not have a filter). We received some very ‘interesting’ answers from the little boys when we asked them where you can get germ from…. And some very interesting reactions when we put Glo Germ (http://www.glogerm.com/) on some of the childrens hands and put it under a black light to see the “germs.” It was a very cool experience to be able to engage with that population. 5. I was interviewed by a local newspaper. The week before Halloween, a local newspaper called Sault This Week called my preceptor asking if she could provide parents with ways that they could make Halloween “healthier.” Instead of doing it herself, she gave me the opportunity. After preparing 3 key messages with the other RDs, 2 hours later I received the call from the reporter. Not only was it a cool experience to be interviewed by a local newspaper on behalf of the health unit, but it was even more cool to see myself in print on the cover of that weeks paper (plus I love getting quoted as “Sara Friedrich, dietetic intern…” made me feel rather professional! 6. Going to a workshop on Media Advocacy and Media Relations in Public Health Last week I had the opportunity to go to a ‘Media Advocacy and Media Relations in Public Health’ day-long workshop held in the Sault. Nutrition communication is extremely important. The average person does not have access to nutrition research, therefore they rely on the news and other communication outlets. Therefore it is important that dietitians have an active voice in the media to provide reliable nutrition information to the public in a way that they can understand. I learned how to engage the media to secure news coverage on a public health issue, how to identify opposition groups and develop a Q&A document to counter their messaging, and some media interview skills and techniques. Hopefully now I can be a more proficient helping professional if the media calls for another interview in the future! Things that I found I struggled with/did not like during my placement:
Overall, my first placement was great. I am definitely going to miss the dietitians, my cute little cubicle and the views from the office!
1/46 weeks done! Not that anyone is counting or anything! For the first week of the Northern Ontario Dietetic Internship (NODIP), I travelled the 3.5 hours from Sault Ste. Marie down to Sudbury where I was able to meet the other 11 interns! Myself and two others are based out of Sault Ste. Marie, 4 are in Thunder Bay, and 5 are in Sudbury. If I were to describe week one in one word it would be - overwhelming. We all know that internship isn't a "walk in the park". We have heard that from our professors, past interns, and RDs. But I was not prepared to hear about all of the EXTRA projects and paperwork on top of the work and studying that will need to be done daily for each placement. This year will be quite the adjustment and test of my organizational skills! The majority of the week was spent going through policies and procedures, learning the topics for our research projects, seeing all of the evaluation forms, and having sessions on cultural competency and health literacy. We also managed to go for some nice lunch walks around Laurentian University, went out for some amazing group dinners and saw the Big Nickel! All in all it was a good first week of internship. Tomorrow will be the second week of orientation, but I will be completing it in my home base (The Sault) with the 2 other interns who are placed here. Here's to hoping I will feel less overwhelmed at the end of this week compared to last week...
The past 4.5 years of university have been gruelling. Not just because of the endless hours of papers, assignments, studying, and tests, but due to the fact that becoming a Dietitian was just a goal... or a "dream" might be a better way of thinking of it.
In Ontario, dietetic internships are not guaranteed for Nutrition majors. What this means is that during the last year of your degree, you get to apply for dietetic internships &/or masters/practicum programs along with the other 70 students in your class, and other nutrition students who are completing nutrition programs at other institutions. These two options are highly competitive and only have a limited number of positions available for students. Less than 50% of nutrition grads who apply for post-degree internships are actually selected. The problem with this is that in order to become a dietitian you MUST complete BOTH a Bachelor's degree from an accredited university program and the supervised practical experience that a dietetic internship/practicum provides. This caused undergrad to be extremely competitive .. in terms of trying to volunteer the most, and get the better grades in comparison to classmates. I have always been competitive, but this was to a whole new level. Looking back on my degree, I do wish that that we could have compared ourselves less, and not felt the need to volunteer at 10 different places "just so the resume for applications would look great," but not for a second do I regret transferring to the University of Guelph to complete my nutrition degree. I have met people who have changed my life (mainly for the better), and have discovered many passions that I never knew existed. Enough of the background.. you are probably wondering how this is related to the title of this entry. Over the past 4 months, I have been attempting to figure out this next step in my career goal. That is getting an internship or masters/practicum program acceptance so that I can become a dietitian! I decided to apply to both options to see where I would best "fit." I am beyond happy to say that after 4.5 years of university, and all the stress and anxiety of having 5 interviews in the span of one week, I have been offered and officially have accepted an internship! Starting September, I will be a dietetic intern with the Northern Ontario Dietetic Internship Program (NODIP)! I am going to have to make sure I have plenty of warm winter clothes... |
Sara FriedrichCanadian Registered Dietitian
Eating healthy isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle Archives
June 2018
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