Dietetic Internship Reflections

It's hard to believe that I'm three weeks into my dietetic internship through the University of Illinois. My first rotation was at a local dialysis center. I was able to observe both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis as well as the multitude of medication associated with each. Assignments included: case studies, bulletin board, renal friendly recipe and educational materials.

My second rotation was at Hy-Vee (a grocery store) about an hour away. It was interesting to learn the dynamic role of a dietitian in a retail environment, and the store I was at actually had 2 full-time dietitians. The longer hours of the retail environment in addition to the commute made for two exhausting weeks.

The remainder of my rotations this semester are local. That being said, I will try to keep this blog updated as best as possible, but some weeks are busier than others.

Growing Pains

This past week has brought all sorts of personal and professional growing opportunities...so many in fact at times I feel as though I'm a young child with growing pains. They would come sporadically and suddenly when I least expected it!

In addition to internship supervisor transitions, I have summer class, graduate school application drafts, and preparation for activities I am planning/leading this fall. All of these opportunities are wonderful and I have gone to great lengths to streamline the types of activities I am involved in, however it catches me off-guard when it all comes at once!

Anyway, enough about that. The past few weeks in the EFNEP office have seen a great deal of progress. I am over half way done scripting and creating handouts/worksheets for over 20 activities that will correlate to the pregnancy nutrition lessons. I am hoping to finish the scripts by the end of the week, which I know will give me a great sense of accomplishment.

The August TEFAP list came out two days ago. I love looking for recipes to use with this list because it lets me be creative with the serving information that is being shared with clients across the state! In addition to generating the recipes and creating a Nutrition Facts Label using special software, I will soon (hopefully this afternoon) begin working on guidelines for turning over the TEFAP handouts!

Image source: http://www.mpull.com/blog/growing-your-sales-pipeline-using-lead-management/

Those People

Have you ever been around those people? No, not the annoying, rude, or anything like that. Have you ever been around the type of people that make you want to be a better person? This type of person is naturally contagious and you leave the conversation thinking, “Yeah, I can do that”! These individuals focus on the relationship aspect working with others and place great value in knowing their peers. Unfortunately, I am not this type of person, but I GREATLY value friendships with those that are! I have had the privilege of working with two people that are this type of personality. Every day at work I would be challenged in various ways to push myself. The interesting thing about these challenges is I never felt that it was a direct challenge: most challenges were questions that caused me to think deeply about my life and values!

Individuals that unintentionally make you want to be a better person are truly some of the most cherished people I have known.