Alive and Interning

It's been an embarrassing amount of months and neglect that have passed since my last post in March.  I got accepted to a distance DI in April, spent a lot of time preparing for said internship with paperwork, scheduling, vaccinations, and studying.  I left my job in May so I could place all my attention on my internship.  In June I was off to my orientation week then immediately started my first rotation, public health, the following week.  Public health went by quickly and I found myself starting inpatient clinical.  Suddenly inpatient came to a close and I am now on a two week hiatus from my internship due to a schedule change. (As much as I am loving and learning so much during my time so far, my mini vacation is very much appreciated by my beach and sun neglected self!)

The whole process is going by very quickly as I find myself feeling extremely busy with 8 hour work days, driving to and from 8 hour work days, assignments, lectures, and quizzes.  However I wouldn't have it any other way! So far I can see myself working as a clinical dietitian or in the field of public health, although I do think my type-A personality is very well suited for clinical! I love fitting the pieces of a patient's puzzle together and charting it all into a neat organized note depicting their nutrition status with anthros, interpreted labs, hydration, estimated needs, past medical history, oral intake, feeding strategy, intervention, goals, and monitoring/evaluation. 

It's crazy to remember my undergrad days when the weekly lab assignment for my clinical nutrition class was one SOAP note. One SOAP note for a week, and I would agonize and over think that one note for 7 whole days.  Fast forward a year and a half later and I am writing upwards of 10-15 notes in one day of a clinical rotation.  I see that as amazing personal growth.  My undergrad education gave me a fantastic knowledge foundation. Working for a year prior to my internship provided experience, confidence, and insight on how my nutrition knowledge fit into the professional world.  My rotations thus far have allowed me to not only practice my knowledge and polish my skills, but use them to directly help people with treatment and education.  I can't wait to see my growth in a year from now or twenty years from now.  I don't know what that growth will be, what it will entail or where it may take me, but I do know that I really enjoy thinking about the possibilities :)

If there is anyone out there that has any recommendations for specific topics of future posts, please let me know.  For example, applying to internships, extracurriculars for internships, cost of internships/applying, distance internships, how to choose an internship, internship itself, explaining rotations in an internship, etc