Brief Beginning

It's been a few weeks since beginning my rotation at the hospital and it has been busy busy busy!

Part of my first unit instructions included auditing a couple of trays delivered to patients. I had to follow the trays upstairs and then evaluate them based on taste, texture, temperature, etc. Hospital food gets a bad rep, this I know... However, the food this hospital is serving is pretty good! I basically ate three lunches that day, because I had the two audit trays and still had my normal lunch break. I was not starving for dinner at the end of day.

And if you can believe it, the food I had to taste was beef stew!! (I don't eat red meat, for those of you that don't know) But I didn't actually taste the meat itself (I hope my professor and preceptor aren't reading this... :) ) but the broth and vegetables were pretty good, and no this has not turned me into a red meat eater. I was hesitant at first because I figured it would receive a bad taste test from me, but it wasn't too bad. I ate almost all the sherbet on one of the trays and the potatoes of another.

I had the opportunity to sit in during a stent placement for my cardiovascular unit. That was pretty interesting to watch. They use wires to get through the arteries and plaque buildup and it's almost like threading a needle through a maze, because you have to get to right place and avoid alot of forks. The doctor performing the procedure had to try a couple of times to get the wire in the right place because the build up was pushing it to go another direction. Overall the procedure itself took almost three hours!

While watching the stent placement, I had to wear a heavy lead apron to protect my insides from the radiation from the x-ray machine. Those things are heavy! My shoulders are probably going to be sore for a couple of days, I don't know how the techs wear them all day long. Putting it on though was an adventure. I ended up with my head through one of the armholes, I'm sure they got a kick out of me attempting to dress myself with this 10-15 pound cloth.

I have begun seeing patients on my own, doing the assessments, consultations and educations that the Registered Dietitians perform. Due to HIPPA, some of my descriptions of patient visits will be limited because I can't give out too much information that someone could see and know who I'm talking about.

One thing that I have come to see the benefit of are the electronic charts. The hospital I am interning at uses electronic medical records (I think almost all hospitals use these now instead of paper charts). I have not had any experience with these before this rotation and I like that it is so organized and physician notes are typed so anyone can read what they are documenting instead of having to interpret scribble. It makes finding the information you need so much easier! I think all physicians take an anti-handwriting class because I have yet to see one that I can actually read.

I am excited for this semester. I'm actually feeling like a real dietitian!

~Brittani


"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life." ~John 6:27