I am now officially done with summer rotations. Unreal. While there have definitely been days (or weeks) I thought would never end, this summer has just flown by overall. We start classes next week, so no real break for me. In the words of a true Minnesotan: Oofda.
After I was done with the clinical portion of my rotations at Primary Children's Medical Center in June, I just moved down to their food service department for my Management/Food Service rotation. I essentially followed the three administrative dietitians and their executive chef around for four weeks. The first couple weeks were pretty frustrating, honestly. Seemed as though one of the dietitians wasn't cooperating -- "too busy" for a student, which was absolutely ridiculous as during the whole 30 minutes I spent with her she told (and showed!) me that part of her official job description is to act as a preceptor and mentor to students. She then proceeded to tell me that was one of her favorite parts of her job and that she does "whatever [she] can" to make it a worthwhile experience for the student. Ha. What a joke. Because of that, I ended up spending two full weeks (when I should have only spent about 4 days) with my primary preceptor who is the "Safety and Sanitation" manager and dishroom supervisor -- she doesn't actually do much with dietetics! It was definitely necessary and interesting for the first week, but by the second week I was feeling like I was wasting my time (and money, since we have to pay up the wazooooo to do these rotations!!). BUT my third and fourth weeks were great -- I worked with one of our new grads, who is their new administrative dietitian in charge of the retail side of things, and the new executive chef. I worked on putting recipes into the food management program, did an allergy audit of the menu, and made general suggestions for the menu, developed a patient-satisfaction survey, etc. In the end it turned out alright.
For the past three weeks I've been in my community nutrition rotation at a WIC clinic in a suburb southwest of Salt Lake City. For those of you not familiar with WIC, it stands for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/WIC-Fact-Sheet.pdf). It's a federal grant program that "provides nutritious foods, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services to participants at no charge. WIC serves low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, and infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk." I have really enjoyed my hours there -- I have done a lot of counseling, researching of other nutrition-related support programs, teaching classes, and creating bulletin boards and nutrition education handouts. The population is great -- I love the moms and the little kids. It was definitely an eye-opener as well -- the differing of attitudes of clients are just crazy. It seems like most are so incredibly thankful for the program and the help given to them, while you can just tell others simply feel entitled and don't want to hear anything we have to say, but rather just get their food vouchers and get out.
Dusty came out at the end of July for a visit -- we spent the weekend around SLC, finally going up into the Uinta Mountains just southeast of the city. We went hiking and just drove for awhile. Just incredible. Except when we locked the keys in my car and Ranger Awkward of Mt. Timpanogos Cave National Monument had to break in. First time I've locked my keys in my car in probably four years. Oops.
The Olympics definitely got in the way of my productivity the last few weeks -- I'm sure Dusty is glad they're done as I think I have been very distracted during our Skype dates, ha. I think this is the first Summer Olympics I have truly paid significant attention to since Atlanta in 1996. It was fun to think back on that -- Nise and I stayed up late as we possibly could watching the gymnastics (because everything else was boring then!!) at Uncle Steve and Auntie Sandi's.
Because of my lack of productivity, I'm definitely a bit nervous to start the fall semester. A friend and I were talking to one of our professors today and she just kept reassuring us that this semester is going to be easy compared to last year. I am thinking NOT.
My class schedule won't be too horrible, but it's my Masters project, internship, and graduate assistant hours that will really get me. We have 320 more internship hours to complete. Typically those hours are done in the second summer of the program (as in Summer 2013), but I have mine scheduled for the school year. I will be working at PEAK Health & Fitness, (http://www.health.utah.edu/PEAK/) which is essentially a workplace wellness clinic run through the Department of Exercise and Sport Science. Clients are employees of the University of Utah, as well as the University Hospital and Primary Children's, which are just up the "hill" from school. I'll be doing a variety of work for them -- a few hours each week of body composition testing and blood work (cholesterol, blood glucose testing), counseling a couple hours each week, nutrition clinics twice a month, random nutrition talks when groups ask for them, blog posts, creating nutrition handouts, and essentially anything else that they ask me to do. Right now I'm a bit overwhelmed -- I've got a heck of a lot scheduled in the first month of school. I hope I can handle it. Overall, though, I'm excited for everything.
I've decide on a topic for and got a small start on my big project that is required for graduation. Without going into too many details, I'm adding some modules/curriculum to our graduate-level Pediatric & Adolescent Nutrition course to help better prepare students in our program for rotations at PCMC and other pediatric-focused rotations, such as WIC. I'll be designing the curriculum -- adding a couple lectures, creating case studies and other assignments, etc -- and then will help to teach lab sessions when the class is offered in the spring. It's going to be a lot of work, but it should be a good experience, especially since I am keeping my mind open to one day teaching at the college level. I had another project lined up that I was so much more excited about -- I was going to design and teach nutrition education classes to a group of low-income teens working on a community gardening project -- but the timing was just so terrible. I wouldn't have been able to graduate until probably December of next year. The way things are set up now, I'll be heading home in May! So hard to believe.
For the past three weeks I've been in my community nutrition rotation at a WIC clinic in a suburb southwest of Salt Lake City. For those of you not familiar with WIC, it stands for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/WIC-Fact-Sheet.pdf). It's a federal grant program that "provides nutritious foods, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services to participants at no charge. WIC serves low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, and infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk." I have really enjoyed my hours there -- I have done a lot of counseling, researching of other nutrition-related support programs, teaching classes, and creating bulletin boards and nutrition education handouts. The population is great -- I love the moms and the little kids. It was definitely an eye-opener as well -- the differing of attitudes of clients are just crazy. It seems like most are so incredibly thankful for the program and the help given to them, while you can just tell others simply feel entitled and don't want to hear anything we have to say, but rather just get their food vouchers and get out.
Dusty came out at the end of July for a visit -- we spent the weekend around SLC, finally going up into the Uinta Mountains just southeast of the city. We went hiking and just drove for awhile. Just incredible. Except when we locked the keys in my car and Ranger Awkward of Mt. Timpanogos Cave National Monument had to break in. First time I've locked my keys in my car in probably four years. Oops.
The Olympics definitely got in the way of my productivity the last few weeks -- I'm sure Dusty is glad they're done as I think I have been very distracted during our Skype dates, ha. I think this is the first Summer Olympics I have truly paid significant attention to since Atlanta in 1996. It was fun to think back on that -- Nise and I stayed up late as we possibly could watching the gymnastics (because everything else was boring then!!) at Uncle Steve and Auntie Sandi's.
Because of my lack of productivity, I'm definitely a bit nervous to start the fall semester. A friend and I were talking to one of our professors today and she just kept reassuring us that this semester is going to be easy compared to last year. I am thinking NOT.
My class schedule won't be too horrible, but it's my Masters project, internship, and graduate assistant hours that will really get me. We have 320 more internship hours to complete. Typically those hours are done in the second summer of the program (as in Summer 2013), but I have mine scheduled for the school year. I will be working at PEAK Health & Fitness, (http://www.health.utah.edu/PEAK/) which is essentially a workplace wellness clinic run through the Department of Exercise and Sport Science. Clients are employees of the University of Utah, as well as the University Hospital and Primary Children's, which are just up the "hill" from school. I'll be doing a variety of work for them -- a few hours each week of body composition testing and blood work (cholesterol, blood glucose testing), counseling a couple hours each week, nutrition clinics twice a month, random nutrition talks when groups ask for them, blog posts, creating nutrition handouts, and essentially anything else that they ask me to do. Right now I'm a bit overwhelmed -- I've got a heck of a lot scheduled in the first month of school. I hope I can handle it. Overall, though, I'm excited for everything.
I've decide on a topic for and got a small start on my big project that is required for graduation. Without going into too many details, I'm adding some modules/curriculum to our graduate-level Pediatric & Adolescent Nutrition course to help better prepare students in our program for rotations at PCMC and other pediatric-focused rotations, such as WIC. I'll be designing the curriculum -- adding a couple lectures, creating case studies and other assignments, etc -- and then will help to teach lab sessions when the class is offered in the spring. It's going to be a lot of work, but it should be a good experience, especially since I am keeping my mind open to one day teaching at the college level. I had another project lined up that I was so much more excited about -- I was going to design and teach nutrition education classes to a group of low-income teens working on a community gardening project -- but the timing was just so terrible. I wouldn't have been able to graduate until probably December of next year. The way things are set up now, I'll be heading home in May! So hard to believe.
It amazes me how I can be so torn between these two places. Every day I look around -- at the mountains, my neighborhood, the university, everywhere -- and am just amazed that this past year has gone by so quickly. Sometimes I get somewhat frustrated with the fact that I don't really have much of a choice as to whether I stay out here or move back to Minnesota after I graduate. Definitely not frustrated with any certain individuals--Dusty has told me many times he'd move out here in a heartbeat if I really wanted to stay--but just with the situation, if that makes sense. All of the people I love the most (well, except the couple best friends who are in places like, say, Texas and Arizona) are back home. And home is where I want to end up anyway, so I feel like it might not make sense to get a job out here that I don't plan on staying at for the long-term. Not to mention Dusty would also need to leave his job. But then I have nights like last night -- we had a welcome potluck for the new students -- and I get so sad about leaving these amazing people. I just need to make sure I make the most of it.
Anyway: I'll be home for the weekend on Friday!! I'm so excited. I wasn't going to go home at all until October because of timing and money issues, but I couldn't wait that long. I've only been home twice in the last eight months and I haven't seen Dusty's family in literally six months. Not fun.
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