Hello everyone! I’m Megan, and I am a region 12 dietetic intern located in Los Angeles, California. I have completed all my internship rotations. Throughout my internship experience, I gained so much knowledge and first-hand experience when it comes to being a registered dietitian. The three tips below are the top things I kept in mind while completing my rotations. 1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Now is your time to learn, and the dietetic internship is your first time having real-life experiences with patients. As an intern, you are not expected to know everything when it comes to MNT, the different diseases, and all the surgical procedures. I learned that it is very important to ask your preceptor questions early on in your rotation. It is best to get your questions cleared up now rather than later. In addition, it is important that you tell your preceptor how you learn best. During my clinical rotation, I had a few questions on tube feeding calculations and my preceptor would do it very quickly on her calculator. I know that I learn best visually and when the steps are written out. As a result, I then asked my preceptor if we could do the tube feeding calculations on paper for me to have a better understanding. My preceptor was more than happy to adjust to suit my learning better. 2. Be proactive. Being proactive demonstrates to your preceptor that you are going above and beyond and your desire to take a bigger role as an intern. One way I was proactive during my dietetic internship was by arriving before the registered dietitians to start the screening process. By the time my preceptor arrived, all she had to do was check my work. Not only does this show you are wanting to take charge, but it also shows the registered dietitians that you are reliable and can complete the screening process on your own. 3. Complete your community rotation in a setting you know you can learn a lot from. As you may know, the Sodexo Dietetic Internship gives you the flexibility to choose where you would like to complete your community hours. I chose to complete part of my community hours at a dialysis clinic due my lack of knowledge when it comes to working with patients with end stage renal disease. During this rotation, I gained a lot of knowledge and learned that I am so passionate about hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. If I never explored a topic that I was less familiar with, I never would have discovered this interest. Hello, my name is Michelle and I am a Region 9 Sodexo intern in Chicago, IL. I have completed my clinical and food service rotations so far and have started completing my community hours. I completed my food service management rotation at a corporate office cafe and had the opportunity to create my own meal, as well as educate the employees on eating a balanced plate. It was very rewarding to educate the employees on how to assemble balanced meals and offer a new dish in the cafe. In coordinating my menu for the cafe, I was able to gain valuable management experience and my preceptors were very helpful in guiding me through the process. I also had the privilege of working with the corporate dietitian from my food service site. I gained 1:1 counseling tips from her and got to learn about a different career in the dietetics field. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the experiences this internship has offered me thus far and I am looking forward to completing the remainder of my rotations. Hello fellow Sodexo interns! My name is Katie and I am an intern in region 4. For my concentration, I choose to spend it in functional and integrative nutrition. I got super lucky in finding my preceptor, who was semi-local to me. She started her career as a registered dietitian, but then went on to become a medical doctor. She now owns her own integrative private practice and maintains her credentials as both a medical doctor and a registered dietitian. During my time with my preceptor, she had partnered with another integrative practitioner, and they were running a 6-week comprehensive elimination diet program for their patients. My preceptor was doing a plant-based version, while the other practitioner was incorporating animal-protein into her version of the elimination diet. The comprehensive elimination diet required participants to eliminate all major allergens and inflammatory foods from their diets. They restricted those foods for 3 weeks, and then began the process of reintroducing those foods they had eliminated. The ultimate goal of this experience was to not only identify what foods may be bothering them, but to also allow the gut to heal itself to potentially resolve symptoms that participants could have been experiencing in relation to over-all inflammation or leaky gut. The majority of my time during this rotation was spent meeting with participants of the comprehensive elimination diet program either over the phone or via zoom to conduct nutrition assessments and address any nutrition needs. Since my preceptor was leading a plant-based version of the elimination diet, a lot of her participants were concerned about their protein needs. I would begin by meeting with participants to conduct a 24-hour diet recall and ask if they had any other nutritional concerns or questions. I would calculate their macros and total calorie intake for the day. Then I would meet with my preceptor twice a week to review all the people that I had met with. We would discuss recommendations based on the person’s macro results and I would bring up any additional nutritional concerns that the individual had. After that, I would schedule a follow-up appointment with each participant to review the recommendations and conduct any nutrition education required. A lot of the nutritional education that I conducted was on how to incorporate more protein and how to maximize your nutrients in the morning. One way that we talked about a lot was smoothies and what to add into a smoothie to make it nutrient dense. While this was the major project that I worked on, it was also my favorite. I loved being able to meet with people one-on-one and have that sense of independence while also knowing I had the support of my preceptor who was always able to offer a wealth of knowledge. This rotation was able to open my eyes to a whole other realm of dietetics and I loved every minute of it. I am so thankful to have had such an amazing preceptor on this journey!! Hello, I’m Alyson, a region 8 intern who moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Florida for Sodexo’s dietetic internship program. I have really enjoyed every part of my internship so far, but my rotation in my concentration of integrative nutrition has far exceeded my expectations. I have been interning at a private practice clinic with a registered dietitian who is a certified diabetes educator, as well as an integrative medicine practitioner. This has been such a great opportunity to learn how to develop personalized integrative nutrition care plans, support the needs of an integrative practice, and learn how to interpret and apply functional testing when working with patients. I supported the needs of the practice by scribing during patient visits, performing administrative duties like creating instruction sheets for patients and uploading documents to the EMR, creating individualized weekly meal plans, and processing new inventory. The homework component of Sodexo’s integrative concentration requires enrollment in track 1 of the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy’s training, which was far more in depth than I would have expected. The modules were a pleasant surprise and further prepared me to understand some of the very complex medical conditions that came up during my integrative rotation. Some of the complex medical conditions involved toxic exposures, chronic infections, hormonal imbalances, and auto-immune diseases, among many others. A lot of the patients that come into this office are prepared to really commit to their health and make big changes, which is so helpful since integrative nutrition is all about these lifestyle shifts. At my integrative rotation site, the first step the dietitian takes in assessing a patient is using the In Body to assess their body composition. In the photo you can see me operating the In Body to get the full picture of the patients’ weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, basal metabolic rate, fluid retention, etc. During the patients’ appointment, the dietitian discusses blood work and any functional labs they may have completed. The functional labs may assess the function of the gut microbiome or an imbalance of bacteria, assess their genetics, food allergies and sensitivities, or micronutrient deficiencies, just to name a few! I’m so passionate about this realm of nutrition and love that it’s like piecing together a puzzle, trying to get to the root cause of the physical symptoms and support a patients’ healing journey. Seeing patients feel better after taking certain foods out of their diet or supplementing with the nutrients they are deficient in is a huge reward, and I’m so glad I was able to find a site that was a great fit for me. I am very grateful for Sodexo’s new integrative nutrition concentration as it felt like the perfect steppingstone for me to merge my degree in nutrition with my passion for integrative nutrition. Hi everyone! My name is Stephen Vaccarello, and I am an intern from Region 1 right outside of Boston, MA. Being a part of this program is one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but it is also one of the most rewarding. I have met so many different people from cooks, nurses, doctors, managers, outpatient staff (both frontline and support) and most importantly patients. I have never felt more rewarded during my clinical rotation working when talking with and educating patients and working with patients in the Critical Care Unit. At first, I felt overwhelmed, even by the time I was approaching advanced clinical as these patients were in a whole different league compared to floor patients. With the help of my preceptors, I was able to learn quickly, and when these patients improved, I could not help but keep a smile. I would say that if you have not been exposed to the hospital setting, then applying for a diet tech position even for a summer before you start will help. You may be more on the food service side, but you will learn hospital operations as time goes on and can work with dietitians if they would allow it. I worked as a diet tech in a skilled nursing facility and at an acute rehab hospital and that experience was invaluable going into the internship. Simply learning how to talk to patients, nurses, even doctors at times is a skill that can only improve over time, and this experience could help you during the rotations. A couple tips I would give would be to stay organized, and to ask for help when you need it. Staying organized will help you break down assignments and their due dates and to manage the workload. Asking for help was one of my weaknesses and something I am still working on. Whenever you have a question, it is always better to ask than to go ahead and continue. If you don’t ask, then you may have to redo parts of the assessment or another project. To conclude this program is difficult, but the more work you put in, the more you get out of it. Stand up for yourself and remember this is a learning experience. You will have tough days but by the end you will be rocking your rotations! Good Luck! The Sodexo Dietetic Internship has provided me with a unique opportunity to complete my rotations in multiple locations across the United States. I completed my clinical and critical care concentration rotations in Massachusetts, fulfilled my requirements for community hours in Florida, and will soon be off to New York to start my food service rotation. This internship has taught me that dietitians not only play a critical role as a member of the interdisciplinary care team in clinical settings but should also immerse themselves in the community and take initiative to promote nutrition. For example, I had a unique opportunity to host a children’s community presentation at an afterschool tutoring program in FL. The elementary students were primarily from low-middle class families, whose parents are immigrants from South America. The children were not familiar with the importance of whole grains, and therefore, I recognized that keeping them engaged would not be an easy task. So, I used visual props, such as a whole grain plush pillow, whole grain clue signs, and various food items, to capture their attention and interest in the lesson. I also created a Whole Grain Detective activity where students could use magnifying glasses to find as many whole grain food indicators as they could in an interactive puzzle. At the end of the presentation, it was rewarding to see the students’ excitement to take their magnifying glasses home to look for the whole grain clues on food items in their pantries. Another opportunity I had to serve the community was to hold an education table at the Dorchester Parade. Given its prior success with the elementary school students, I decided to continue with the whole grain theme at this event as well. I provided whole grain handouts, discussed their health benefits, and offered whole grain activities for children to participate in to test their nutrition knowledge. I am proud to say that I independently represented the nutrition department as a dietetic intern and increased community engagement through this event. Through these experiences, I have learned what it means to actively participate in the communities that I am a part of. Whether through educational sessions on diabetic diets for newly diagnosed, hospitalized diabetic patients or teaching first graders how to search for whole grain stamps, I’m confident that I’m able to make an impact in my community. Lastly, I am thankful to the preceptors and mentors that have helped me gain confidence in my abilities and clinical judgement along the way. Even as dietetic interns, we are the experts in this field of nutrition and can make a difference! Hi all! My name is Mohammad, and I am a region 8 intern based in Tallahassee, Florida. I started my internship in September 2022. I am beyond grateful to be a part of the Sodexo Dietetic Internship. This past September, I had the pleasure of attending orientation in Gaithersburg, where I got to know fellow interns in my cohort and the team of internship directors. Then, I arrived in Tallahassee feeling much more prepared to start my internship. My clinical rotation was at a 772-bed level 2 trauma center, which I loved. My responsibility as an intern was to provide critical care to a diverse patient population who had sustained severe injuries or were suffering from acute illnesses. I collaborated with the interdisciplinary team to develop and implement nutrition care plans for ICU patients requiring EN and PN support. I conducted NFPE to assess diverse patient populations’ nutritional status and identify signs of malnutrition. I also conducted nutrition assessments, planned interventions, monitored the effectiveness of interventions, and got a lot of practice charting in the EMR. One of my clinical rotation highlights was working with a patient struggling to manage type-1 diabetes. The patient had been recently diagnosed and had difficulty adjusting to their new dietary requirements. Through our sessions, I educated the patient on the importance of monitoring their carbohydrate intake and incorporating more whole foods into their diet. We worked together to create a meal plan that was both delicious and nutritious, including a variety of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. As the weeks progressed, the patient began to see improvements in their blood sugar levels and overall health. They expressed their gratitude for the support and guidance I provided during our sessions, which was incredibly rewarding for me as an intern. This rotation completely exceeded my expectations. My preceptor was phenomenal; he taught me so much and allowed me to experience first-hand how the RD plays a vital leadership role in enhancing the quality of life of the patients in the hospital. I have the unique opportunity to tailor a part of my internship to my future goals and the area of dietetics I am deeply passionate about. The management concentration has allowed me to gain practical experience in managing nutrition services in a healthcare setting, develop leadership skills, and understand the intricacies of providing nutrition care to diverse populations. Completing this rotation provided me with a solid foundation for a career in dietetics, particularly in management roles within healthcare organizations, food service establishments, and community nutrition programs. As I move forward in my career, I can reflect on the valuable experiences, knowledge, and skills I gained during this rotation and apply them to my future practice as a registered dietitian. One tip for future interns, imagine you are a detective on a mission to solve a mystery - the mystery of your patient's health condition. Every day in the clinical rotation, you will gather clues by talking to your patients, reviewing their medical records and lab reports, and working with the healthcare team. Your job is to piece together these clues to create a comprehensive picture of your patient's health and develop a plan to help them improve their nutrition status. So, put on your detective hat, grab your notepad, and get ready to solve the mystery of your patient's health. By embracing your inner nutrition detective, you'll approach your clinical rotation with a sense of adventure and excitement, and you'll be well on your way to becoming a confident and competent dietitian. Throughout my dietetic internship with Sodexo, I have had many positive experiences and interactions. I think that the most encouraging thing that I have gained through many of my experiences has been the confirmation that people are genuinely interested in nutrition and influenced by what you have to say as a dietetic intern. I know going into my rotations I was skeptical about whether or not patients would really appreciate what I had to say, or whether those who I gave presentations to would actually take my considerations to heart, but I was pleasantly surprised at the warm feedback I have received. One of the most rewarding examples that I have had has got to be by far when I gave my children’s community presentation. I did my presentation back home at my local elementary school. I also used to substitute teach there for a couple years, so I was very familiar with many of the students and teachers, which made it easy to organize and a lot less intimidating. I gave the presentation assembly-style to about 200 students grades K-5th about water and staying hydrated during the summer. It was such a fun time being able to talk to the kids and get them engaged in the conversation through a fun little activity and answering some of the great questions they came up with. I had teachers texting me and coming up to me for days after I had given the presentation telling me how informative the presentation was and that they even learned a lot. Parents would also come up and tell me that their kids were carrying their water bottles with them everywhere now or informing their parents they had to drink more water. As I continue through my internship, I hope to gain more positive experiences like this one and express my passion for nutrition and assisting in furthering others understanding in how it can impact their health. During my clinical setting, I had the opportunity to help plan and organize a hospital food drive with the local food bank. During this event, I worked with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee at the hospital with the CNM, the hospital marketing director and the local food bank. This was a month-long event where we had 8 cans throughout the hospital. We asked for foods that the food bank needed the most. In preparation for the event, I worked with the marketing director to create flyers to be distributed throughout the hospital and to the community. These flyers were published in the weekly roundup email, on all the TVs in the hospital and to local media stations. We also collected volunteers for our drive through event for the community food drive. Our goal was to collect 500 pounds of food, which would provide about 400 meals. I worked with the DEI committee, CNM and the finance team to coordinate an ice cream social if we met our goal. I collected and weighed the donations weekly and reported the weight to the CNM and marketing director so we could promote how close we were to our goal. During the drive through event, we had three local media outlets cover the event. At the conclusion of the event, we hosted a reveal with hospital leadership, the local food bank and the three media outlets. This event was hosted by the CEO and CNM, where they announced we collected 2.5x our goal, 1300 pounds which would create about 1100 meals for the community. This opportunity allowed me to use my communication and organizational skills to create a successful event. I learned how to properly market the event to draw in participation and how food disparity impacted the community. I also learned the impact/importance an RD can have on an event like this to educate and help build connections within the community. Through this event, I was able to make strong connections with the local food bank and other hospital staff that were crucial to the event’s success and will be helpful in the remaining part of my rotation. I was also able to use my knowledge of nutrition to educate the hospital staff and community. This event surpassed many expectations, and its success encouraged the hospital to make it a yearly event and continue a relationship with the local food bank. Hello, everyone! I’m Terry, a dietetic intern in region 3 located in New York City. I am coming to the end of my internship hours this month, and it has been both a challenging and enjoyable experience. I would love to share some of my internship highlights with you. Critical Care MNT Concentration: One of the best parts of my internship was spending my concentration hours in the Medical ICU, Surgical ICU, and Critical Care Units. I was very nervous going into this concentration, but I went in it looking for a challenge. I wanted to hone in on all the education received during my undergraduate courses leading up to the internship, and that challenge was surely met. During this time, I was able to build my confidence in communication with doctors and adapt to constant changes and developments of the patient’s medical course. One of the most important things I learned from this rotation was learning to speak up and to advocate for patient’s needs. In the beginning of my concentration, I went in very shy, nervous, and wide eyed asking a lot of questions with a lot of uncertainty about my nutrition diagnoses and patient interventions. After a lot of time reviewing ASPEN recommendations and looking through current research, my confidence grew. By the end of my time in these units, I was being heard in IDT rounds by the doctors and my recommendations/interventions were being implemented. I can confidently say this concentration was well worth the challenge. Food Service Management: One of the most surprising aspects of this internship is finding out the leadership skills you hold and continuing to grow each day. Going into food service I reported to the kitchen at 6am, and it was very interesting seeing how food gets to patients’ rooms beginning with the ordering process. I was able to learn of the family community that exists in the Sodexo food service operation as patient care is rooted in the goal of the food service operation. In doing so, it is founded upon teamwork and organization to complete goals and objectives. The best part of food service was when I was able to create an innovative product that would be placed on the menu. As it was just in time for spring, I wanted to implement a new menu item that was delicious, sweet, refreshing, and nutritious. I decided to implement a plant-based yogurt parfait that used coconut yogurt, fresh fruit, and granola. I was extremely surprised how much simple ingredients can make a huge turnout of satisfaction by many of the staff and visitors at my site. It was very rewarding to educate the customers, staff, and visitors of the benefits of choosing plant-based options and the nutritional value that it holds. Customers included many cultures and all walks of life, and they enjoyed the parfaits. Moreover, it was just in time for national nutrition month where we showed the fuel for the future. This was a very enjoyable experience! |