November | 2014 | THE REEL RD2BE OF STL

September 18th marked my one month anniversary of being a Dietetic Intern, Wooooo!

Last time I posted here I was in the midst of my Diabetes rotation and had brought you up-to-date with orientation happenings. Well, I am happy and shocked to say that my Diabetes rotation is over! It was a great experience, but went fast as lightening! However, I think that this will be the case with my internship overall due to the way that it is set up. So, before I talk about my Diabetes rotation, let me give you some background information about how rotations flow in general with this dietetic internship.

My rotation work week takes place Tuesday through Friday. Mondays are Seminar days, which are spent on campus. Typically on this day we have presentations from healthcare professionals, SLU Nutrition & Dietetics instructors, meetings with faculty advisors, and receive clearance to our next rotation through checkmarks of module assignments that focus on material for the upcoming rotation that starts on Tuesday. Uh, that last statement was a mouthful and I’m not even sure if it made sense? But basically we are at our rotation sites for 2-weeks and have assignments to prep us for the upcoming experience. With that said, you can see why this experience feels like it will be here today, gone tomorrow! In fact, I just completed my first week at my second rotation, which is in Congregate Feeding. So, I just have one more week there and I will be whisked away to another site. It keeps me on my toes, and I love it! So check back for details on that rotation.

Now, that I broke down the Hustle & Flow of my dietetic internship, let me tell you about my first rotation in Diabetes. This marked my first true inpatient clinical experience. This rotation taught me a lot about the nutritional risk protocol of an institution, the charting methods/generation software available, and how to prioritize nutritional concerns in an inpatient setting. Also, I’ve honed my counseling skills. Motivational interviewing and active listening techniques essential in this setting. The best thing about this rotation was that is was my FIRST dietetic internship rotation! It was my first time experiencing the feeling of having “ownership” of a patient and playing a role in an individual’s care. My next two rotations are food service related and then I’m back to clinical for Cardiovascular disease, so I’m looking forward to this rotation so that I can assess how my little bit of inpatient experience has impacted my current skill set.

By the way, I’m now onto my 4th rotation! 😉 So sorry for my blogging hiatus…that is if anyone is even reading this anymore? Ha! Anyway I’ll leave you with a picture of my awesome Diabetes Rotation crew, the SLU ladies of the Public Health and Culinary Entrepreneurship dietetic internship tracks.