My name is Eryn David, and I'm currently a Region 5 dietetic intern. At this point in my internship, I have completed my food service rotation at The Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, and started my patient services/clinical nutrition management rotations at Jefferson Medical Center in Ranson, West Virginia.
My foodservice rotation was completed at The Madeira School, a girl’s boarding and day school. While there, I was able to have some fantastic food service-related experiences that included not only the daily meal service for the student body and faculty, but community-building events supported by the catering services. The food service staff helped facilitate many themed lunch events and "pop-ups" to increase client satisfaction and lunch attendance. My personal favorite was National Strawberry Day, where we surprised the girls and faculty with mini strawberry shortcake cups. Still, the mac n' cheese bar for National Mac N' Cheese Day was popular as well with add-ons such as buffalo chicken and shrimp. For my marketing and wellness project, I presented information about Intuitive Eating as part of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which is something I feel strongly about. My preceptor encouraged me to take the lead on many of the management tasks, as applicable teaching an in-service meeting about proper handwashing as COVID-19 started getting more attention.
My foodservice rotation was completed at The Madeira School, a girl’s boarding and day school. While there, I was able to have some fantastic food service-related experiences that included not only the daily meal service for the student body and faculty, but community-building events supported by the catering services. The food service staff helped facilitate many themed lunch events and "pop-ups" to increase client satisfaction and lunch attendance. My personal favorite was National Strawberry Day, where we surprised the girls and faculty with mini strawberry shortcake cups. Still, the mac n' cheese bar for National Mac N' Cheese Day was popular as well with add-ons such as buffalo chicken and shrimp. For my marketing and wellness project, I presented information about Intuitive Eating as part of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which is something I feel strongly about. My preceptor encouraged me to take the lead on many of the management tasks, as applicable teaching an in-service meeting about proper handwashing as COVID-19 started getting more attention.
Jefferson Medical Center was a unique experience as the country was trying to figure out what steps to take in dealing with COVID-19. The implementation of preventive measures, such as replacing the salad bar with prepackaged salad options, was done. While the use of reusable containers had been previously encouraged at this facility, changes were made to use only disposable cups to prevent cross-contamination. Unfortunately, like many other interns, I was not able to stay at JMC for very long due to COVID-19 precaution measures. I have been fortunate to spend time volunteering at my church's food bank packaging produce and filling food orders to be delivered multiple days each week.
I look forward to being back at the hospital when given the green light. In the meantime, I'm busy with my kids and using the opportunity to learn online with the provided webinars and case studies. This is a unique situation for many and not to be forgotten, so I'm trying to keep a proper perspective about what I'm grateful for, and my internship experiences are definitely part of that.
I look forward to being back at the hospital when given the green light. In the meantime, I'm busy with my kids and using the opportunity to learn online with the provided webinars and case studies. This is a unique situation for many and not to be forgotten, so I'm trying to keep a proper perspective about what I'm grateful for, and my internship experiences are definitely part of that.
