When I left my job in advertising four years ago and decided to pursue a new career in nutrition, I had no idea what was in store. After two years of pre-requisites and two years in the Georgia State University (GSU) Coordinated Program (CP) my journey has come to an end; while the CP program was difficult and stressful, I feel so lucky to have experienced it as it provided me with a deep understanding of nutrition and allowed me to engage in every potential career path a dietitian may take through working in food service management, clinical and community realms. It has also permitted me to form lifelong friendships with my classmates. This will benefit me both personally and professionally as I now have my own network of nutrition professionals.
During the program, I completed over 1,200 supervised practice hours. My rotations brought me to a variety of settings such as Cherokee County Schools for my food service management rotation, Grady Memorial Hospital for my clinical rotation, as well as Gwinnett Medical Center for Bariatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for Pediatrics. Every rotation pushed me outside of my comfort zone, challenging me to apply knowledge I acquired during lectures, and allowing me to understand the positive impact nutrition has on the community as a whole. I began each rotation with initial feelings of apprehension, but I left with a wealth of knowledge about the dietetics practice and about myself.
I am grateful for each of these experiences as they have enabled me to determine my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. My biggest strength is my enthusiasm and curiosity for the nutrition profession. I love learning something new each day and applying that knowledge as I help patients achieve their nutrition goals. The classes I took during CP delivered a wealth of knowledge surrounding medical nutrition therapy, food production and management, metabolism, research, micro- and macronutrients and nutrition intervention. I applied the information gained in these courses in each of my rotations. Although I am more confident than I was at the beginning of the CP, I still feel that I need more experience before I achieve a level of comfort in the clinical world. I require more practice calculating parenteral and enteral feedings, so I can quickly determine how much to feed my future patients. Once I have even more experience in the field, I will become more adept at this practice, maximizing the time I spend with my patients and finding a level of comfort.
Through my rotations, I learned that I enjoy working with patients, educating them on their nutrition and following them to help them make diet and lifestyle changes to enhance their health. In short, I prefer working with people who are actively involved in changing their nutrition rather than people admitted to the hospital in a short-term situation that are unable to focus on their health and nutrition. Teaching a renal patient the appropriate diet for kidney health or educating a patient with hypertension on a low sodium diet effectively gives that person the opportunity to live a better and more fulfilling life; proper nutrition is an essential part of this goal. When patients are not actively involved in setting their own nutrition goals, improving nutrition is a challenge. Patients do much better with follow through when they are able to set their own goals and achieve them; seeing a patient meet their goal is fulfilling. In an inpatient acute setting, I found that patients tend to be disinterested and will make any excuse to end the session, which is unrewarding and could lead to burn out. I also learned that I do not enjoy food service management. I do not believe these establishments are able to provide quality nutrition to the population since their number one concern is profit margin.
My preceptors served as mentors and allowed me to experience first hand what their roles were in their particular setting. I am truly thankful for this. I know being a preceptor takes time and effort, and I am so appreciative that they invested in me. I believe this reflects positively on the dietetics field as a whole, and I am excited to join a group of individuals who care so much about the growth of future dietetics professionals.
My position as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) with After-School All-Stars (ASAS) also pushed me outside of my comfort zone and allowed me to educate adolescents on healthy eating and nutrition. I enjoyed creating interactive lessons that engaged the kids, and I learned that making a difference in even one student was rewarding. In the future, I would love to volunteer in a program like ASAS. From my experience working with ASAS, I know the vast importance of community programs. The ability to communicate in a fun and interactive way with a skeptical adolescent population will help me better meet the needs of every patient.
The artifacts and reflections in my portfolio illustrate the experiences I had, the challenges I faced and the tremendous growth I achieved throughout the program. I selected artifacts that best reflected my learning and experiences during the program. Looking back, I wish I could have included some of my later rotation experiences in this portfolio. I began writing it in September and completed several rotations after my learning outcomes had been met. My later rotations were more focused in clinical, and I found them to be more challenging, stimulating and fulfilling than some of my earlier rotations. In my renal rotation, I realized that I enjoyed seeing the patients three times a week and establishing a relationship with them. I loved following them and helping them achieve their nutrition goals while improving their quality of life. In my last rotation, I worked with the pediatric population. This ended up being one of my favorite populations with which to work. And in my bariatrics rotation, I was able to see how obesity was much more than calories in and calories out. These rotations presented interesting scenarios and exciting challenges.
Before I started the program, I was not aware of the many avenues available to a registered dietitian. I always saw myself in an outpatient, counseling role because that was the extent of what I knew. However, now that my rotations are completed, I believe I would be happiest working in a clinical setting. I find clinical to be exciting and challenging. I like that the environment is constantly changing and there is always something to learn about a new disease state. I also enjoyed my disease-specific clinical rotations, such as renal and diabetes. People with these conditions need to focus on nutrition in order to prevent complications and maintain the best quality of life possible. I look forward to applying all of the information I have gained in my classes at GSU and in my rotations to my future practice and career. In addition, I am committed to seeking out ways in which I can continue my education, and I will continue to learn and grow through my interactions with my program peers as well as other local dietitians.
During the program, I completed over 1,200 supervised practice hours. My rotations brought me to a variety of settings such as Cherokee County Schools for my food service management rotation, Grady Memorial Hospital for my clinical rotation, as well as Gwinnett Medical Center for Bariatrics and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for Pediatrics. Every rotation pushed me outside of my comfort zone, challenging me to apply knowledge I acquired during lectures, and allowing me to understand the positive impact nutrition has on the community as a whole. I began each rotation with initial feelings of apprehension, but I left with a wealth of knowledge about the dietetics practice and about myself.
I am grateful for each of these experiences as they have enabled me to determine my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. My biggest strength is my enthusiasm and curiosity for the nutrition profession. I love learning something new each day and applying that knowledge as I help patients achieve their nutrition goals. The classes I took during CP delivered a wealth of knowledge surrounding medical nutrition therapy, food production and management, metabolism, research, micro- and macronutrients and nutrition intervention. I applied the information gained in these courses in each of my rotations. Although I am more confident than I was at the beginning of the CP, I still feel that I need more experience before I achieve a level of comfort in the clinical world. I require more practice calculating parenteral and enteral feedings, so I can quickly determine how much to feed my future patients. Once I have even more experience in the field, I will become more adept at this practice, maximizing the time I spend with my patients and finding a level of comfort.
Through my rotations, I learned that I enjoy working with patients, educating them on their nutrition and following them to help them make diet and lifestyle changes to enhance their health. In short, I prefer working with people who are actively involved in changing their nutrition rather than people admitted to the hospital in a short-term situation that are unable to focus on their health and nutrition. Teaching a renal patient the appropriate diet for kidney health or educating a patient with hypertension on a low sodium diet effectively gives that person the opportunity to live a better and more fulfilling life; proper nutrition is an essential part of this goal. When patients are not actively involved in setting their own nutrition goals, improving nutrition is a challenge. Patients do much better with follow through when they are able to set their own goals and achieve them; seeing a patient meet their goal is fulfilling. In an inpatient acute setting, I found that patients tend to be disinterested and will make any excuse to end the session, which is unrewarding and could lead to burn out. I also learned that I do not enjoy food service management. I do not believe these establishments are able to provide quality nutrition to the population since their number one concern is profit margin.
My preceptors served as mentors and allowed me to experience first hand what their roles were in their particular setting. I am truly thankful for this. I know being a preceptor takes time and effort, and I am so appreciative that they invested in me. I believe this reflects positively on the dietetics field as a whole, and I am excited to join a group of individuals who care so much about the growth of future dietetics professionals.
My position as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) with After-School All-Stars (ASAS) also pushed me outside of my comfort zone and allowed me to educate adolescents on healthy eating and nutrition. I enjoyed creating interactive lessons that engaged the kids, and I learned that making a difference in even one student was rewarding. In the future, I would love to volunteer in a program like ASAS. From my experience working with ASAS, I know the vast importance of community programs. The ability to communicate in a fun and interactive way with a skeptical adolescent population will help me better meet the needs of every patient.
The artifacts and reflections in my portfolio illustrate the experiences I had, the challenges I faced and the tremendous growth I achieved throughout the program. I selected artifacts that best reflected my learning and experiences during the program. Looking back, I wish I could have included some of my later rotation experiences in this portfolio. I began writing it in September and completed several rotations after my learning outcomes had been met. My later rotations were more focused in clinical, and I found them to be more challenging, stimulating and fulfilling than some of my earlier rotations. In my renal rotation, I realized that I enjoyed seeing the patients three times a week and establishing a relationship with them. I loved following them and helping them achieve their nutrition goals while improving their quality of life. In my last rotation, I worked with the pediatric population. This ended up being one of my favorite populations with which to work. And in my bariatrics rotation, I was able to see how obesity was much more than calories in and calories out. These rotations presented interesting scenarios and exciting challenges.
Before I started the program, I was not aware of the many avenues available to a registered dietitian. I always saw myself in an outpatient, counseling role because that was the extent of what I knew. However, now that my rotations are completed, I believe I would be happiest working in a clinical setting. I find clinical to be exciting and challenging. I like that the environment is constantly changing and there is always something to learn about a new disease state. I also enjoyed my disease-specific clinical rotations, such as renal and diabetes. People with these conditions need to focus on nutrition in order to prevent complications and maintain the best quality of life possible. I look forward to applying all of the information I have gained in my classes at GSU and in my rotations to my future practice and career. In addition, I am committed to seeking out ways in which I can continue my education, and I will continue to learn and grow through my interactions with my program peers as well as other local dietitians.