As the Philadelphia pediatric concentration intern, I am currently completing my intermediate clinical rotations at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). My passion for pediatric care began in college as a volunteer for the Johns Hopkins’ Believe in Tomorrow Children’s House. As a graduate student, my strong desire to work in a pediatric setting continued to blossom, through my work on research projects related to childhood obesity and cystic fibrosis and my Nutrition Fellowship for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities program at CHOP.
Although my rotations at CHOP have only just begun, I already feel tremendous career growth and expansion of my understanding of applied nutrition. Putting the knowledge I learned in school into action, I have become comfortable assessing nutrition status, diagnosing pediatric malnutrition, plotting on growth charts, calculating nutrition requirements and instructing patients and parents on various evidence-based interventions. I have already gained a diverse clinical experience by working with Registered Dietitians in a variety of settings including neuromuscular clinic, bone clinic, outpatient endocrine center, inpatient endocrine unit, outpatient GI center, feeding clinic and outpatient and inpatient adolescent medicine, specializing in eating disorders. In a few weeks I will begin my advanced clinical rotations in the critical care units, including NICU, PICU and CICU, and am looking forward to refining my skills calculating enteral (tube feeding) and parental (IV feeding) nutrition needs.
I am continuously challenged with each of the rotations, learning how each population requires different assessments, education and nutrition therapies. The experiences I have already had in this concentration have been extremely rewarding, and I hope that my future career in dietetics allows me to continue working with children and adolescents, making positive contributions to pediatric health through nutrition.
Although my rotations at CHOP have only just begun, I already feel tremendous career growth and expansion of my understanding of applied nutrition. Putting the knowledge I learned in school into action, I have become comfortable assessing nutrition status, diagnosing pediatric malnutrition, plotting on growth charts, calculating nutrition requirements and instructing patients and parents on various evidence-based interventions. I have already gained a diverse clinical experience by working with Registered Dietitians in a variety of settings including neuromuscular clinic, bone clinic, outpatient endocrine center, inpatient endocrine unit, outpatient GI center, feeding clinic and outpatient and inpatient adolescent medicine, specializing in eating disorders. In a few weeks I will begin my advanced clinical rotations in the critical care units, including NICU, PICU and CICU, and am looking forward to refining my skills calculating enteral (tube feeding) and parental (IV feeding) nutrition needs.
I am continuously challenged with each of the rotations, learning how each population requires different assessments, education and nutrition therapies. The experiences I have already had in this concentration have been extremely rewarding, and I hope that my future career in dietetics allows me to continue working with children and adolescents, making positive contributions to pediatric health through nutrition.
