Hi everyone! My name is Jamie and I am a Sodexo dietetic intern at the Philadelphia campus. I just finished up staff relief and I am now beginning my food service management rotation! I completed the majority of my clinical rotations at Doylestown Hospital and I absolutely loved it there. Throughout my advanced clinical rotation, I was also able to gain experience at other locations in the areas of adult and pediatric nutrition support, long-term care, and renal nutrition. Although I have truly enjoyed and learned a great deal from each rotation that I have completed so far, I would definitely have to say that my favorite has been my diabetes concentration rotation. During this rotation, I was able to spend time at an outpatient diabetes center, teaching the nutrition component of diabetes self-management education (DSME) classes and leading a few one-on-one counseling sessions with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics. I was also able to spend time with an insulin pump trainer and observe her as she conducted training sessions with individuals who were new to the pump.
Although the majority of my concentration was spent educating and counseling individuals with type 2 diabetes, during the last full week of this rotation, I had the very valuable and eye-opening opportunity to work as a member of the nutrition staff at Camp Possibilities, a sleep-away camp in Maryland for children with type 1 diabetes. As a member of the nutrition staff, I was responsible for calculating the amount of carbohydrates that were in a serving of each food item offered at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and writing the information on the whiteboard in the dining hall for the campers to reference when they were calculating their total carbohydrate intake after the meal. The campers received carb-counting sheets at each meal and were responsible for filling them out and providing them to their designated medical staff member so that he or she could calculate the appropriate insulin dosage accordingly. I was also responsible for ensuring that gluten-free entrée and dessert options were available at each meal for the campers and counselors with celiac disease, and meatless options were available for vegetarian campers and staff. Each night when the campers received their bedtime dose of insulin, they also received a snack in order to prevent their blood sugar from dropping too low overnight. The other nutrition staff members and I planned and prepared these snacks daily and delivered them to each cabin right before bedtime.
Although the majority of my concentration was spent educating and counseling individuals with type 2 diabetes, during the last full week of this rotation, I had the very valuable and eye-opening opportunity to work as a member of the nutrition staff at Camp Possibilities, a sleep-away camp in Maryland for children with type 1 diabetes. As a member of the nutrition staff, I was responsible for calculating the amount of carbohydrates that were in a serving of each food item offered at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and writing the information on the whiteboard in the dining hall for the campers to reference when they were calculating their total carbohydrate intake after the meal. The campers received carb-counting sheets at each meal and were responsible for filling them out and providing them to their designated medical staff member so that he or she could calculate the appropriate insulin dosage accordingly. I was also responsible for ensuring that gluten-free entrée and dessert options were available at each meal for the campers and counselors with celiac disease, and meatless options were available for vegetarian campers and staff. Each night when the campers received their bedtime dose of insulin, they also received a snack in order to prevent their blood sugar from dropping too low overnight. The other nutrition staff members and I planned and prepared these snacks daily and delivered them to each cabin right before bedtime.
Despite the fact that a great deal of my daily tasks were food and nutrition related, I also had the opportunity to assist one of the medical staff members with blood sugar checks at the pool on a couple of days throughout the week. We had a table set up under an overhang by the pool, and when each cabin came down to swim, we collected the insulin pumps from the campers who had them and kept them in coolers while the campers swam. Every 30 minutes, the campers would be called out of the pool and required to test their blood sugar. Because swimming is an activity during which children typically exert a lot of energy, the medical staff wanted to keep their blood sugar levels above 100 mg/dL while they were in the pool. If their levels were below this number when they tested, they were given either a snack or glucose tablets in order to raise it above 100 mg/dL so that they could return to the pool and resume swimming. If their blood sugar levels were over 250 mg/dL, they were required to test their urine for ketones. If they were negative for ketones, the medical staff member would tell them how much water to drink before they could get back in the pool in an attempt to lower their blood sugar levels. If moderate or large ketones were present, the camper’s designated medical staff member would have to be called so that he or she could provide the child with insulin and fluids in order to treat the high blood sugar and prevent ketoacidosis. Having this experience as well as observing the countless responsibilities and challenges these young children are faced with in order to manage their blood sugar levels was extremely eye-opening for me and further strengthened my passion for this area of nutrition as well as my desire to become a certified diabetes educator (CDE) in the future. I am very grateful for all of the wonderful experiences I have had so far as a dietetic intern with Sodexo and I look forward to the knowledge and skills I will gain throughout my food service management and community nutrition rotations!
