DI Matching Ordering

You can and should reevaluate your preferences after the interviews.  You rank order each of the programs that you apply to initially and then after interviews are conducted you can log on and change your rankings if you desire.  I thought I had my six choices pretty well set until interviews.  Following my last interview, I logged on and moved my sixth choice to my third choice which then bumped my original third, fourth and fifth choices down a spot.  For me, the interview was very insightful and I felt like it went really well and that I would truly enjoy that school’s program and that’s why I made the change. 

DND Digital Preferences

1    You can and should reevaluate your preferences after the interviews.  You rank order each of the programs that you apply to initially and then after interviews are conducted you can log on and change your rankings if you desire.  I thought I had my six choices pretty well set until interviews.  Following my last interview, I logged on and moved my sixth choice to my third choice which then bumped my original third, fourth and fifth choices down a spot.  For me, the interview was very insightful and I felt like it went really well and that I would truly enjoy that school’s program and that’s why I made the change.  I encourage you to really think about the programs and your potential fit there after interviews and make changes if necessary. 

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Clinical Rotation

I'm almost two weeks into my clinical rotation (and officially half way through my internship program!) and I must admit that I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.  Going in I had a a lot of fears about clinical....it's just so different than anything I've done in the past and it seemed to be so much more "critical" than any of the other nutrition environments.  However, I'm really enjoying the challenge.  It's a lot of work, definitely more than any other rotation so far.  I'm putting in 7-8 hour days in the hospital and then coming home and doing lots of reading on different disease states.  It's exhausting, I'm so ready for the weekend by the time Friday rolls around but I'm learning a lot and I've already noticed some progress in my abilities in terms of talking with and assessing my patients.

I'm at a great hospital with some really great dietitians that know their stuff but are also really trusting me and pushing me to expand my skills and to use my clinical judgement.  I'm seeing about 3 patients a day currently.  I chart on the patient after my visit and my assessment and then I go through the note with one of the dietitians and she signs off on it.  It's a busy environment and the days go by super quickly, I'm sure that it will be over before I know it!   

Dietetic Internship Scholarships!

I know that many of you are really busy pulling everything together for the internship application deadline which is less than a month away (less than two weeks for some programs!) but don't forget to take some time to apply for scholarships from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.   The deadline for the scholarships is also February 15th so make sure you don't let it pass you by!  I didn't find out about this opportunity until the deadline had passed and I wish that I knew about it at this point. From what I understand the Academy is pretty generous so it sounds like it's worth the extra time, at least one of my fellow interns received some money to help cover the internship costs.  Here's a link directly to the application: http://www.eatright.org/foundation/scholarships/  

Good luck and hang in there!