Hey everyone and thank you for viewing my #InternPerspective update! My name is Chris Citowicz and I am one of the MS/DI interns for the Sodexo Philadelphia campus. I’m currently finishing up my Spring 1 semester with the University of Rhode Island’s accelerated online master’s program, and am about 3 weeks into completing my Medical Nutrition Therapy concentration rotation at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in West Philadelphia. For my concentration, I spend the majority of my time in the ICUs. There is just so much to learn being in the Medical ICU, Trauma ICU, Heart and Vascular ICU, and the new Neuro ICU. It is truly an amazing experience here at Penn with such great dietitians, and overall, getting to interact with doctors, nurses, medical students, and other members of the interdisciplinary team. Everyone is so welcoming and helpful, especially with regards to helping interns in understanding some of the complex diseases. During my time here I was able to see a percutaneous endoscopic gastrectomy tube placement for a patient I wrote nutrition support recommendations for. Not only was I able to see the actual placement, but I had the opportunity to interact with the family and explain the means of nutrition and the formula that was to be used. Just last week, I was able to see a barium swallow evaluation done by our speech language pathologist. Having the ability to see the magnitude of their work and how it reflects nutrition interchangeably was a great eye-opening experience. I cannot wait to transition into the staff relief rotation, and furthermore, into the food service management rotation with Vanguard where I’ll be able to dive deep in understanding a dietitians role in food service!
