Internship thus far

So I think I may be the worst blogger. As an intern I find it really hard to keep up with this blog, but I will be attempting to get better at it. Since the last post I have finished my Food Service rotation and begun my Clinical Rotation. I have also completed a half marathon with my mom. Woohoo!!!
The next part of my Food Service rotation was at Davis, which is a long term care facility. It was actually a great and very educational experience. I was able to see the future of long term care facilities. Davis is currently switching to household models for all residents. It is a really cool concept. They have private and semi-private rooms that are part of a house of 23 residents that all share a kitchen and living area. The new households will be able to specialize the menus to their residents, which is a really interesting concept. I was able to serve in all areas of the long term care and rehabilitation facilities while there. I got to get my hands a little dirty (with gloves and a hairnet of course). My last project was to help with catering an event for the board members. I set tables with centerpieces and full flatware, plated food, and helped serve desert. 
Next I spent some time in the New Hanover County School system. One of the best perks.... I got a free school lunch every day :) I was able to spend about four weeks with the director of child nutrition and the supervisors that work with her. I was able to observe a lot of different jobs that the supervisors do on a daily basis. I also got a good idea of the multiple jobs the director of child nutrition does on a daily basis. They have a joke at the office that on their job description it says "and any other duties" and that can encompass pretty much anything. With the supervisors I was able to act as a health inspector of sorts. Part of their job is to inspect the kitchens three times a year. They have a checklist that is similar to that of a health inspector. It contains information about HACCP, which is ordering, receiving, storage, rotation, cooking, serving, disposing and cleaning. The only difference is that the supervisors look at the production sheets and financials of the specific cafeterias. The production sheets help to tell them about whether or not they are meeting the USDA guidelines for reimbursement. It was actually a very interesting experience to complete. I was able to complete a few by myself. 
The next part of my internship was still with the school system, but it was in management. I was assigned to a cafeteria that was close to my house as an assistant manager of sorts. I was assigned to a school that is not in the greatest area of town, and has about 90% of children on free and reduced lunch. It was a great experience! I got to experience a ton in my two weeks there.... more than I can recall probably. Kathy the manager that I worked with was a fantastic teacher. She threw me into cashiering breakfast my first day, and let me tell you... it was a shock haha. The kids spit out their number at you so quickly. They have 7-10 digit numbers. The next day I was thrown into inventory and ordering. It was a lot to take in, but it was very educational. I was also thrown into serving, helping the cook and back-up in the kitchen. My real life experience was dealing with some disciplinary issues with the cook. It was an eye opener. It was definitely uncomfortable, but allowed me to see the appropriate way to deal with situations.  The personalities in the kitchen did not click. On my last day, the cook passed out, which was an exciting way to exit. 
The people that I have worked with so far have been absolutely amazing! The child nutrition office threw me a going away lunch, which was amazing! Tacos and cookie cake :) They definitely try to feed you in food service. I was not excited about food service at all when I entered into my internship, but I ended up really enjoying it! 
In other news, I completed the outer banks half marathon with my mom. I set a goal of 2:45:00 for myself. Through my training I hurt my knee. I think it was just from overuse. I was able to finish in 2:44:50. I am glad to have completed my goal and check that one off the list. Haha. I have since taken a break from running, but I did end up enjoying it, so I think I will start back up after Thanksgiving. 
I will try to write next week after I finish my rotation with my first clinical preceptor. I am currently working in pulmonary/oncology and CVICU. Most of my patients are in pulmonary/oncology, and there are some interesting cases. 

At A Glance... The First Two Weeks

So, I had originally planned on posting at the end of each week of my internship. However, a post did not happen after the first week. I completed my first rotation in food service at New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC) with the Executive Chef Dennis. Let me start off by saying that Dennis was great! I learned a ton about both food service and management at NHRMC. My first day was a bit rocky because both of my preceptor contacts at the hospital were out on vacation. There was some confusion in our communication and Dennis thought that I would be starting a day later than I thought I was starting. So I showed up on my first day, went to employee health to complete my drug test, and got my name badge. After that, (with the help of a very nice volunteer) I found my way down to the nutrition services office. Once there, I found out that Dennis was on vacation and they sent me home. I came back the next day to meet with Dennis not knowing what I was supposed to do or bring. One of the first questions he asked me was if he could look at my curriculum, and of course in my nervousness for my first day I FORGOT IT! I was thinking to myself, wow what a great first impression. Dennis was very chill about it though, which put me at ease. My first day consisted of a ton of observation. The first thing I observed was the hot side of the tray line. That was followed by observation of the expo section of the tray line, and finally the cold side of the tray line.  The hot station cooks all of the hot food that is ordered by patients. The cold station takes care of all of the cold foods (salads and sandwiches). The expo station takes care of everything else; they are in charge of making sure all items on the ticket are present. The menu system at NHRMC is room service style. This means that patients can call down and order what they would like off of the menu (within the limitations of their diets). The rest of the week consisted of a general overview of the entire food service operation at the hospital. WOW, there is so much that goes on in the NHRMC kitchen. There operation is massive. They feed close to 400 patients at every meal, that is not including the cafe and other a la carte operations. I was able to participate in the ordering and receiving as well. They spend a lot of money on food, I had absolutely no idea. Looking at the order total, I was thinking to myself that I will never see that much money at one time during my lifetime! This past week consisted more of the managerial side of things. Monday and Tuesday were helping the team switch to the new ticket system. They used to print the entire ticket at the hot, cold and expo stations on the tray line. They new system printed the hot items only on a pink ticket at the hot station, the cold items only on a blue ticket at the cold station, and the entire ticket on white at the expo station. The transition started at lunch, which went relatively smoothly. Dinner was not as smooth, but still did not go terribly. Breakfast was the worst meal during the transition. The second day of every meal went better as the cooks and tray line employees started to get into a groove. I was able to sit in on a few meetings this week as well. The hospital has a LEAN initiative which is trying to promote interdepartmental communication and moral. That was a very interesting meeting to sit in on. They were discussing their visual board. I sat in on one disciplinary meeting as well. That was not fun, but it was interesting to see how the department deals with disciplining staff.  The last major meeting that I was able to sit in on was a manager meeting. In that meeting they just discussed business and how things were going in general, as well as, trouble shooting. I was able to do quite a few hands-on activities. My favorite being learning how to cut a filet from a tenderloin. Dennis gave me the last of the five tenderloins to trim and cut into 16 4-6oz. portions. So, I was nervous about cutting it (I let Dennis cut the actual pieces of meat, but I trimmed the steak). I loved my time at NHRMC with Chef Dennis! Now I am off to the next part of my food service rotation at Davis Health Center. Wish me luck! 

A Bit About Me

Hi! My name is Sydney, and this blog will be about my journey to become a Registered Dietitian. I just wanted to start by telling you a little about myself and my journey thus far. I started my undergraduate at Virginia Tech knowing exactly what I wanted to study, and surprisingly I stuck with it all 4 years. That is not to say it was without some struggles along the way. My first two years in the program were really tough. I was on in-major academic probation every spring semester until my junior year for not achieving a 3.0. So, for those of you in the same situation, there is hope :) Do not get discouraged. It wasn't until I got through all of the general science classes that I really started to excel. When it came time to apply for DI's my senior year, I had a reality check. With my GPA being only a 3.1, I was not competitive for the programs that I wanted to get into. So after much discussion with Ms. Cox (the undergraduate dietetics program director) I decided to go with what I had considered plan B. Apply to graduate school. Since it was my plan B, I had not prepared at all. I had to scramble to study for and take my GRE. Then, the application date for one of my programs was December 1. As a word of advice, if you have a plan B, actually prepare for it because you may need to put it into action. After applying to all 5 graduate programs as plan A now, I was still preparing everything to apply for DICAS (the internship matching system). I figured even if I didn't use it that year, it would make my life so much easier to have most of the information filled in. If you have ever completed the DICAS application, you know how time consuming it is. Shortly after winter break, I received an email from East Carolina University informing me of my acceptance into their graduate program. I was given a week to decide whether or not I wanted to attend. That seemed like a huge decision to make in a week, but I went ahead and accepted. Because of this, I decided not to apply to any DI's. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. As I moved down to my new city not knowing a sole, I wasn't too sure why I was headed to Greenville, NC. After being there for a year and completing the first year of graduate school, I know why. I applied and was accepted into the MS/DI program at ECU for the 2013-2014 school year. I even got my top pick for internship assignments in Wilmington, NC. It was not an easy transition, but I was able to meet a lot of new people and make some new connections. I finished what I believe to be my hardest year of graduate school, and now I am able to focus on my internship this year. I am very excited to be starting a new adventure here in Wilmington, and look forward to sharing the good, bad and ugly about my dietetic internship. 


Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor (MD). The purpose of my blog is to share my experiences with nutrition and food, not to provide medical advice. The views on this website do not necessarily reflect the values, thoughts, or opinions of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics or any current employer. My nutrition and lifestyle views are influenced by my education, professional experience, and evidence-based information.