Nourish to Flourish

This week  I finally started orientation for my dietetic internship. Let me tell you, it was a LONG week and we didn’t even start until Tuesday. A majority of the week was going over expectations, as well as completing part of a leadership class (we will complete a full credit’s worth of this class in the 9 days of orientation). We had so many readings to complete and to be honest, there were quite a few I could not get to because I did not adequately prepare and there was little time left in the day once I got home. Traveling to and from Cornell puts 100 miles on my car. I leave around 6:30 AM and I don’t get back until around 7 PM. Like I said, it was a long week.

The other interns, though, are great! I think we quickly became friendly with each other, and everyone offers a give-and-take; no one is too overbearing and I don’t anticipate any issues in this group, which I am so thankful for! I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone better!

My favorite part of the week was our orientation at Strong Memorial Hospital, where we will be completing our clinical and management rotations. We had a chance to shadow a dietitian and it was a great, unexpected experience. The one I was with took me to a pediatric cardiac floor and I had a chance to follow her into a couple of rooms. One of the patients was an 8-month-old refuge. While I was there, they finally had access to an interpreter so she was able to speak with the mom about his feeding regimen. Later, we went to interdisciplinary rounds, so all different professions were represented to collaborate about patients.

During the week, we were introduced to our research topic. Mine will be assessing how community organizations can enhance school meal programs. I have literally zero ideas of where I want to go with this, but I will be meeting with my preceptor on Monday to start my supervised practice and hopefully gain some insight on what organizations are available to the school district I’ll be working with and anything else that might help guide my research.

The orientation focused a lot on personality styles/traits. This included a Myer-Briggs Type Inventory and a Kraybill Conflict Style Inventory. We then compared with the other interns and had many discussions about how different types work together and separately, which I didn’t think would make a difference, but it was crazy how much of a range of personalities there is among our group!

I am already starting to see myself growing as a student, which is amazing! I told myself that I would really take charge of my education during these next 10 months, rather than sit by and listen. I usually am not a participator in classes, for fear of being wrong, but I am starting to participate despite being wrong. Many of the times I have offered an answer in our discussions, it wasn’t correct. And that’s ok. It’s not like that answer is how I will be defined for my life, and I will learn better by participating and being involved rather than being incorrect inside my mind and not learning. Also, no one remembers after a few seconds that a wrong answer was given, so there’s no harm in being wrong and I feel much more engaged since I am participating.

In order to avoid the chaos of last week, I am attempting to do as many of the readings and outside work as possible this weekend. Because of how much I had to do this past week, I did not get enough sleep and my apartment is a mess! I have dishes waiting to be put away, clothes lying out, the lights I hung up have fallen down and so I have to step over them because I haven’t had a chance to re-hang them. I am so ready to have time to cook myself food this week and go for a walk, especially because we sit all day and then I sit for an hour+ driving each way! Note to future interns: When they tell you it will be helpful to do the readings early, DO THE READINGS EARLY! Don’t take that time for granted and think you’ll be able to read a 30-page article, 3 chapters of a book, and a few other articles all in one night, especially when you won’t get home until 6:30/7! If they offer advice, it’s because it helped past interns be successful and you should really heed any advice given.

With that being said, I am looking forward to this week coming up. I will be meeting my community site preceptor, going to a ropes course, and cooking food together with the other interns! I am also hoping to publish another article on this website for you throughout the week since I have so many topics I’ve found and want to write about!

Have a great weekend and happy nourishing!