I am currently clinical inpatient dietitian at Duke Raleigh Hospital. Our hospital specializes in oncology, orthopedic surgery, GI, and neurology. I work with all of these specialities, but primarily manage ether patients on the gen-surg floor. I know that I am so blessed to be able to start my career with such a great company that appreciates learning and growth. I am currently on the board for preventing CHF readmissions, in which I am the sole representative for the nutrition department. I provide feedback about patients who have been readmitted and what their previous nutrition interventions were. I then provide feedback about possible solutions for future nutrition interventions along with other members of the hospital’s interdisciplinary team. I also lead our new student mentorship program. Many of the food service staff are actually dietetics master’s and undergraduate students from area colleges. After working 3 months, they are allowed to apply to the program in which they will complete 16 weeks of MNT modules and even practice charting on EPIC. Students also shadow me throughout the program and present a final case study to the other dietitians. I am so proud to be the director of this program and give back to students and prepare them more for their clinical internships.
DIETETIC INTERNSHIP
I completed my dietetic internship with Sodexo at the distanced campus. I chose Sodexo’s program because of their many amazing accounts. I knew that I wanted to intern at a non-clinical site for food service and that Sodexo has many non-clinical food service accounts. I also wanted my clinical rotation to be at a large hospital and Sodexo was able to offer that. I had such a positive experience with Sodexo that prepared me for my current clinical dietitian job. Click Here to Visit the Sodexo Internship Website.
FOOD SERVICE MANAGEMENT
I completed my food service management rotation at Glasco Smith Klein (GSK) in Durham, NC. Before this rotation, my only food service experience was in hospitals. I learned that this account was more motivated by profit than a hospital, so they had to constantly think of ways to entice their customers to buy more.
I enjoyed creating my theme meal and addressing the need for healthy and interesting food. I lead the food staff in making a Korean Bibimbap Bowl which they had never made before. I increased their sales by 150% and many customers were very pleased to see that the cafe was offering a new and healthy meal.
The nutrition facts brochure that I create for the meal.
CORPORATE WELLNESS
I continued my time at GSK for another 6 weeks to complete my concentration rotation in corporate wellness. I learned that there is a need for an RD in the corporate environment because of the shift towards a healthier food culture. Employees want more healthy options and the food service staff wants to respond, but they don’t know how. A dietitian could help the food service staff offer more healthy meals and also be a resource for the corporate employees. During this rotation I presented demos about sustainability, how to be healthy during the holidays, and created a healthy snack station. I also partnered with the fitness center during their “Maintain don’t Gain” program. I created a promotion to post a picture of their healthy plate during the holidays to earn an extra point towards that program. They liked the idea so much that they forwarded the promotion to the GSK marketing director in the UK to create a year long program partnering the fitness center with the cafe!
The nutrition promotion I created to partner with the fitness center
Examples of healthy plate ideas for Thanksgiving based off of myplate.
Clinical
I completed the majority of my clinical rotation at Trident Medical Center and 2 weeks at Summerville Medical Center in Charleston, SC. Trident Hospital is a 300 bed acute care hospital with a level 2 Trauma Center. I was so comfortable in the clinical setting that I was seeing my own patients by the 2nd week! Each day comprised of a mix of diagnoses including renal, diabetes, pediatrics, oncology, behavioral health, orthopedics, and maternal care. Diagnosing malnutrition through medical history review, nutrition-focused physical exam, anthropometric, and biochemical data became second nature. I spent 1 month in the 30-bed ICU initiating and monitoring tube feeding regimens for patients on ventilators, CRRT, and nimbex. I also worked with many trauma patients, with the majority of those needing nutritional interventions being TBI’s. I enjoyed being a part of the interdisciplinary team and advocating for the most appropriate nutrition intervention.
The RD’s celebrated my last day as their intern!
The CNM, Michael Stafford, and I threw a party for RD Day!
Maintaining sodium levels for patients with tube feeds can be very difficult because of the plethora of reasons that can cause an imbalance. I decided to present about sodium disorders and how the RD can intervene. The RD’s were very appreciative of my presentation because they didn’t realize that there were so many different treatment options. You can view my presentation by clicking the link below.
Community
I completed the majority (3 weeks) of my community rotation at Summerfield Custom Wellness in Raleigh, NC. RD’s at this company travel to various companies in the area to counsel clients at their work sites. I watched the dietitian help clients navigate through home and work stress to maintain a healthy lifestyle. My preceptor also was developing a summer recipe guide, so I was able to help make some of the recipes, market on social media, and take some of the pictures. I really enjoyed learning more about motivational interviewing and how RD can also work in preventative medicine.
These are some of the pictures I took for the recipe guide.
Click Here To View the Recipe Guide I Helped to Create
I spent the rest of my community hours working with different age groups: seniors and children. I taught several nutrition classes through Wake Med’s Energize program. This program aims to teach children and their parent healthy habits to help improve as a family. I also volunteered delivering and preparing food for meals on wheels. I enjoyed learning about this program and also knowing that so many wonderful people donate their time to make sure the seniors of the community are fed.
