Learn about my Dietetic Journey
Internship
Rotation Sites
March 2021 - May 2021
Clinical Dietetic Intern,
NICU at University Hospital
Conducted nutrition assessment, nutrition intervention, and monitoring for preterm and high-risk babies
February 2021 - March 2021
Clinical Dietetic Intern,
Army Residency Community
Conducted nutrition assessment, nutrition intervention and monitoring for geriatric patients; provided appropriate medical nutrition therapy with emphasis on compassionate care
Counseled and educated on a variety of therapeutic diets mainly consisting of heart health and weight management
January 2021 - February 2021
Foodservice Dietetic Intern,
Methodist Healthcare System
Utilized leadership skills to manage a foodservice operation
Completed quality control studies to determine and implement cost-saving budget measures
November 2021
Community Dietetic Intern,
SA Oasis
Collaborated with community partners to increase health literacy and create an environment of positive lifestyle change
October 2020
Clinical Dietetic Intern,
Eating Recovery Center
Counseled eating disorder patients to encourage the development of attainable goals to support dietary change
Developed nutrition educational material to present to the eating disorder population
Led group nutrition discussion and normal eating to promote healthy relationships with food
September 2020 - October 2020
Community Dietetic Intern, HEB
Counseled, empowered, and educated clients on a variety of special diets utilizing motivational interviewing techniques
Developed nutrition educational material to present to the target population
Community Dietetic Intern, HEB
September 2020 - October 2020
I have learned tools, such as freedieting.com and PediTool, helping me calculate the client's need and get a feel of their general nutrition status. Freedieting.com is very helpful on calories and macro counting. Simply plugging in the gender, exercise level, and numbers of age, current, and height, the system will calculate total calories for me. Also, there are options for maintenance, fat loss, and extreme fat loss. Meanwhile, it can calculate the percentage of calories from each macronutrient based on the diet plan of choices. Therefore, if we have figure out the daily calorie intake, the system helps us convert this into grams of macro-nutrients. Peditool, on the other hand, only applies to children. This system calculates the growth chart for 2 to 20 for us. Therefore, as we know the age, the weight, and the height of the pediatric clients, we would know about the percentile on the growth chart.
Clinical Dietetic Intern, Eating Recovery Center
October 2020
Motivational interviewing is the counseling method that I have been learned a lot during the rotation. which is a great technique to support changes. It is a person-centered strategy used to elicit patient motivation to change. It is usually done by asking open-ended questions instead of "yes" or "no" questions. offering affirmations. practicing reflective listening. and summarizing the statement. Throughout the rotation. IÂ have observed so many techniques that I found beneficial to engage a patient in a session. However. it was tough when I tried to apply it during my group education. The things I was struggling with the most were open-ended questions and reflections. Sometimes. I could be too focused on the materials I was supposed to cover. and then I would go through the content without asking any questions. which made it difficult for me to pull information from the audience . I also found it difficult to reflect on what a patient said because I might be too nervous. so that I moved too fast without a complete reflection. Overall. I think I am getting more feel of this counseling method. and I need more practice to master it .
Community Dietetic Intern,
SA Oasis
November 2020
During this rotation, the lip I have learned is to ask questions and develop a safe environment to discuss. Asking questions helps the audience stay engaged. By throwing questions out there, it helps the audience to think while listening to the presentation. Asking questions also encourage people to ask questions back, and that is how an adult learns. Lastly, asking questions helps me read the audience and learn what they want to gain. In the meantime, developing a no judgment place is important, too. Without a safe environment, it would discourage answering questions, and then the discussion would be stopped. As a presenter, I have also learned that it is crucial to remember the class's objectives and then tailor them to the discussion happening in the classroom. With that, the audience and the presenter could have a good time while learning together with each other.
Foodservice Dietetic Intern, Methodist Healthcare System
January 2021 - February 2021
During this rotation, I learned that building a great rapport with everyone is very important, including FNS workers and the multidisciplinary team. We need to communicate with people consistently so that we could gather information from different points of view. For example, the manager wanted to ensure that the patient hosts are taking the patient's order. Therefore, she goes on the floor and round every morning. She verified with the unit clerks to see if her employees have come and taken orders. She would talk to the worker and see if they have any questions. With consistent communication, the manager has built up a great relationship with both FNS workers and nurses. As a result, the unit clerks would keep an eye on FNS workers, and let the manager know if there is an issue. I think this is really helpful.
Clinical Dietetic Intern,
Army Residency Community
February 2021 - March 2021
Reassurance is the thing I have learned the most during the rotation. In the clinical setting, patients/clients/residents are usually anxious and need someone to help them stop worrying by saying kind or helpful things. Sometimes, they need to know someone is on their side supporting them. Therefore, saying reassuring words can remove fear and concerns about illness. Also, reassurance helps build a good rapport. When people are reassured, they will trust the professionals and will be most likely to follow the treatment, which will aid the outcome.
Reflection
I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to build a career by doing what I love. Throughout the various sites, I have seen myself grow and accomplished the goals that I set in the beginning. I have performed food demo in a community setting, given multiple presentations on various topics to populations, I wasn't familiar with at first, and developed educational materials for target populations. I have learned to conduct a literature review on post-op infants. With the experience gained from the internship, I am now ready for the next step of my journey!
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I am thrilled to say that I have learned so much from great preceptors, but I know that I still have much more to learn from others in this field. I’m a hard worker, a team player, and excited to see what would come up next!