One Month In!

It's hard to believe but I've officially been a dietetic intern for one month!  If the rest of the process goes as fast as this first four weeks then I will be done before I know it.  I guess it helps that we are constantly busy.  We are now working off of checklists for three separate rotations which is a big exercise in organization and multitasking.  On top of that we were given our official schedules and rotation assignments so we know what lies ahead.

In October I will begin my first outside rotation in a clinic that offers women's health services (mammograms, pap smears, cholesterol screening, etc) to women between the ages of 40 and 64 that are uninsured or underinsured.  As part of this program I had to learn to take blood pressure and had a refresher course in type 2 diabetes.  It's a quick rotation, just five clinic days total but it should be really interesting because it's a neat partnership between the medical community (nurses, doctors, medical assistants) and the nutrition side of things (dietitians).  I also have to write a newsletter to be sent to these patients which should be really fun given my journalism background.

In terms of other assignments, I will be doing my food service rotation with a dietitian in a large local school district which should be really neat because I'm very interested in school nutrition.  After Christmas Break I will be starting my clinical rotation in a hospital downtown that is a level one trauma facility and serves all people regardless of their ability to pay.  This is the rotation that I am most concerned with because clinical is probably my weakest area of dietetics.  I don't have any experience in the clinical setting and it tends to be a higher stress situation than what I'm used.  Finally, my WIC rotation is with a dietitian that is two years younger than me that is also pretty fresh out of her internship.  By the time I get to her, she will have been working in her current position for just over a year.  I'm actually really excited to learn from someone who has just gone through this whole process herself.  After WIC I will have rotation in pediatrics at a hospital, one in long term care, two weeks in an outside research setting and an option week where we get to set up our own rotation.  I'm thinking that I would like to do my choice week with childhood diabetes.

In between these rotations and during our downtime (which is decreasing each week) we will be working on our community and administration checklists as well as our big research project which is just getting underway.  It's a lot but I still love it and I feel good about the progress I'm making so far.  I'm also still really thankful for the opportunities that I get through this internship.  The interns are basically treated like management so we get to attend all kinds of trainings, workshops and seminars.  Tomorrow we have a presentation on working with those in poverty which I'm really excited about.  The woman that is speaking was born into poverty and is now a PhD.

That's all for now, I'll try to update again soon!