Last Semester Week 1

Happy New Year to you! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

Things are back in full swing now for my final semester as a Dietetic Student. Woohoo! I've almost made it!

Not much longer I will be wearing this!

My first week back consisted of introductions to our new sites and general organization for the semester to come. The first half of this semester is set up similarly to our first semester in the program. We are at several different locations, some of them are the same rotation sites we were at that first semester and we will work in small groups again. I am excited about the group I will be working with this semester, they are both extremely hard workers and very easy to get along with.

We will be working with a home meal delivery program, teaching cooking and nutrition classes for the food bank, working with WIC (Women, Infants, Children), the wellness, and nutrition and health programs at TCU, and teaching nutrition labs to the current TCU students. I am looking forward to these rotations, but anxious to see how one of them has "supposedly" changed from our first go around with them first semester.

Let's just say that site didn't leave a good taste in my mouth when we completed that rotation, I know I'm not the only one in this boat apprehensive to see how round 2 goes, I'll keep you updated.

 The second half of this semester is our culminating rotation (the location of our choosing) and I will be at one of the county hospitals in the area. I am looking forward to it, and interested to see its comparison to the hospitals I have worked in before. I knew I wanted to work in a clinical setting for my culminating hours, but I was also torn because I do eventually want to work as Renal Dietitian and was thinking working at a dialysis clinic would be a smart move. After discussing this with several of my professors, they suggested working at a hospital that sees a lot of kidney patients might be the best of both worlds!

Every time I hear those words, the theme song starts playing in my head...

I am hoping to keep you updated more often this semester, I will have a little more time since I'm not taking any scheduled classes. Plus hopefully I'll have more material being at several different sites throughout the weeks ahead.

~Brittani

"For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." ~ Psalm 48:14

End of Third Semester

As winter break comes to an end, I realized I need to fill you in on my last rotation of the previous semester!

My final rotation of the semester took place at a Dialysis clinic working with patients with kidney disease. It was my favorite rotation of the semester and I was sad to only have the opportunity to be there for a week. The dietitian I worked with was awesome! She was incredibly knowledgeable, gave me some great professional pointers, had me help out and get involved whenever I could and allowed me to ask all the questions I wanted. She was fun and kind of goofy, which made me feel comfortable around here, plus I'm pretty goofy myself, so we got along really well.

I might be a little biased, because kidney disease is what I eventually want to do as a Registered Dietitian. (For now... I still have one more semester that may peak another interest in the dietitian realm, we shall see!)

Our first day started bright and early at 6am. I got to tour the clinic, visited with several patients and got the run down of a day as a renal dietitian. We also made recipes using Nepro for patients to try. Nepro is a nutritional supplement created for patients with kidney disease. The afternoon involved quality control meetings, which were long and boring (sorry). I think partly because I wasn't exactly sure of everything they were discussing, however we did get free lunch!

Day two started later in the afternoon, mainly wrapping up the end of the day at one of the locations and moving to another one for the remainder of the afternoon for another quality meeting. We took a roadtrip to Granbury for this one.

Day three began again early at 6am. It was Nepro Lobby day! We decorated a table in the front lobby with Nepro information, coupons and our recipe samples. We had made raspberry fruit pops and coconut pineapple parfait. The dietitian was trying to get her patients free Nepro by providing forms to complete and mail in to Nepro. I tasted them myself and they were good!

 

The afternoon was spent traveling to Plano for a Kidney Education Training session. The dietitian was being trained to teach Kidney Education classes and I had the opportunity to sit it on the session, unfortunately I cannot be certified myself since I am not an RD although I did sit through the training.... Oh well!

My final day was spent completing my education poster to be hung in the main waiting area for the patients. I was quite proud of myself and really liked my color scheme.

After all this fun came finals week to wrap up the end of the semester. I missed out on a girls weekend in Austin because of it, however I made the grades I wanted, so I guess it was worth it. I think it also helped because the weekend before finals week Andy was out of town for a football game with the boys, so I had the place to myself without ESPN playing in the background. (Love you! ;) )

~Brittani


"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." ~ Psalm 126:3

Holiday Survey

In the spirit of the season, I came across this fun little survey from one of my favorite blogs I follow religiously... www.pbfingers.com And thought it would be fun to share my answers

25 Questions: Holiday Style

Eggnog or Hot Chocolate?
Tough one, but I will say hot chocolate

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
They are sat under the tree

Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Since we don't have a house, we just have trees and they have white lights

Do you hang mistletoe?
No, but I want to find one of those fun mistletoe headbands to walk around with...

When do you hang your decorations up?
The Saturday after Thanksgiving

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Easy, my mother's chicken and dumplings, DELICIOUS

Favorite holiday memory as a child?
The year all the kids got rollerblades from Santa. We went up to our church and rolled around for the entire afternoon Christmas day, so much fun.

What is on your Christmas wish list?
I have a long list of books I want to read, most can be found here: Pinterest Book List  
I also would not mind money for school ;)

Or diamonds...

Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve?
Now that I am married, we split the holiday. Last year we opened gifts with the in-laws Christmas Eve and with my parents on Christmas day.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
We actually have two trees, a pink one and a traditional green one. We were fortunate enough to have an ornament shower for one of our wedding showers, and those ornaments fill up our little trees.

Real tree or fake tree?
I have always had fake trees. Obviously the pink one is fake.

Snow? Love it or dread it?
The few times I've been around it I've had a blast, so I'd say I love it. I also enjoy it because when it does snow in Texas everything is shut down, no school, no work... Hooray!

Do you remember your favorite gift?
Barbies were always a winner growing up, but last Christmas my husband surprised me with a ginormous Chick-Fil-A stuffed cow, it was AWESOME! About the size of a small  human.

What's the most important thing about Christmas for you?
Getting all of the family together. Our little clans go a little crazy when we're all together and it's so much fun.

What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Pumpkin pie and peppermint bark

What is your favorite tradition?
Christmas dinner, everyone together and we open those fun poppers with little goodies inside. All of us put on the paper crowns of various colors and stuff our face with my mom's home cooking. YUM!

What tops your tree?
We actually don't have a tree topper for our green tree, but our pink tree has a silver star

Do you prefer giving or receiving?
Both, it's fun to give, especially when I find a clever gift or something they really want.

What is your favorite Christmas song?
A favorite?! I love holiday music, so I can't have just one...

Candy canes, yuck or yum?
Anything made of sugar is yum...

Favorite Christmas movie?
Elf, The Santa Clause, A Christmas Story

What do you leave for Santa?
Sugar cookies and eggnog

Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?
Driving to my parents house and having brunch

Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?
The mall, I'm still skeptical of purchasing stuff online, plus it doesn't always look the same as the pictures, and you have to pay for shipping....

Christmas letter or Christmas card?
Cards, they are fun to display, plus some letters are rather lengthy

Just a fun random post, please feel free to copy questions and fill in your own answers!!

~Brittani

Diabetes Rotation

I spent a couple of weeks with an outpatient Diabetes Education Center. During this time I was able to sit in on a few group classes that they conduct on a regular schedule. The topics included diet, exercise, stress management, diabetes basics, and sick days. They were tailored to a crowd newly diagnosed with diabetes, but even though I have learned about the disease through my own education at TCU I still learned a lot.

The attendees to the classes made it interesting too. We had a couple of war veterans who talked about their time in the service and a class clown in one. The group classes lasted about 4 hours, so there was a lot of information presented to them during those times.

I also had the opportunity to sit in on some individual sessions. These patients come in for yearly follow ups to the Diabetes center to check on their diet, medications and blood sugar history. During one of the sessions I had the opportunity to practice a little bit of carbohydrate counting with food models. I love food models, they look so real!

One of the afternoons during this rotation, the Diabetes Education Center hosted a come and go Diabetes Education Session for the nursing staff at the hospital. They had several booths set up for the nurses to come and learn how to correctly check blood sugars, use the different glucometers (blood sugar meter), how to use the different insulin devices, a brief carbohydrate counting breakdown, and what other medical conditions individuals with diabetes are at risk for.

I got to check my own blood sugar using a glucometer!

Though it wasn't at the ideal time (you're supposed to check before eating and two hours after a meal, I did it just 1 hour after), I got a reading of 109, which is in the normal range. However, it was interesting to try it out, because I had never used one before. I will say I was a little nervous because you do have to prick your finger to get blood to test, but the lancing devices they have now make it almost painless. I barely felt it prick my finger, so if I do have to check my blood sugar regularly (which of course I'm hoping I don't) I shouldn't be afraid.

On a side note, I must say congratulations to my great friend Stephanie who married the man of her dreams December 1, 2012. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the wedding part and we had a blast! My favorite part was when the groom started repeating the pastor when it was Stephanie's turn. "I Stephanie..."

The BEAUTIFUL bride and myself

Onto my last and final rotation for the semester!!

~Brittani

This scripture my fabulous friend Lacy recently shared and I found it most appropriate. Thanks Lacy!!

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things you do not know." ~ Jeremiah 33:3

Long Term Care

For one week we had the opportunity to work with a dietitian who consults with nursing homes. It was very different from our hospital rotation. (Sorry no fun pictures with this post)

We were there in small groups and each day we were at a different location. Our preceptor is the dietitan for 21 long term care facilities in the DFW area. (Wow) So she must be extremely organized to be sure to visit each one within the timespan set by state and federal regulations.

One thing that I found difficult was that the dietitians did not have an office. At each facility, they found a room or chair and table set up to work out. The office had to come with them.

Day 1: Our first Long Term Care facility in Fort Worth, pretty tame for the most part. We were reviewing some of the resident's charts and there was one resident who looked us up and down, wheeled over to one of the nurses at the nurses's station and began questioning her why we were there. The nurse explained that we were dietetic students and we were there to check on the residents eating and make sure they were getting enough. The resident then just sat there and stared at us with this glare. Yikes!

Day 2: We spent the afternoon at one of the facilities close to campus, it was the nicest of the three facilities, nothing too exciting occured during our time there
Day 3: Our last day with our Long Term Care preceptor was the craziest. At one point in the morning we were by the nurse's station looking up patient charts and all at the same time around the station we had a man talking like an auctioner and clapping, one woman randomly singing, and another woman howling. It was quite an adventure.

My group and I decided that when we're old and in a nursing home we're going to do some crazy stuff just to mess with students. Some ideas: rolling around naked in our wheelchairs, randomly singing kid songs (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star), and just staring at them with a blank face. Can't wait to see the reactions!

~Brittani


"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." ~ Psalms 37:4

Clinical Coming to an End

My time at the hospital is coming to an end and I'm sad, but also excited to start somewhere new. The dietitans at the hospital were awesome and I learned alot!

Before leaving I had the opportunity to watch a wound care treatment as part of one of my units and I was pretty excited about it. The patient had surgery in the chest area to remove a mass, and it left a hole that needed to heal. I was able to observe the wound nurse remove the current sponge placed inside with a fresh one. I thought it was cool to be able to see the wound, it was deep enough that you could see the tissue moving inside whenever the patient breathed in and out.

This past week, the hospital's marketing team decided to add some flair to the 6th floor...


Surprise!

When I came out of the stairwell and turned the corner, I had to jump back, these large pictures scared me and I was so used to seeing sky when turning the corner.

This last week at my hospital site, I am expected to be doing 75% of the work the dietitians normally complete in a day. So far I've been seeing roughly 50% of the patients assigned to the dietitian, so Tuesday during the unit was a little chaotic because it was a lot of patients and the majority of them were full assessments (versus follow ups-much simpler), and involved many medical conditions. But good practice for feeling like a real dietitian!!

We have recently met with our professor for next semester's rotations and have discussed where we want to be for our culminating hours. This is half of next semester that we choose where we want to be, whether it be a place we have already been but want to explore more, or a place that we haven't been to and would be interested in exploring. I'm torn, I really want to work with Renal (kidney) patients, but have found out that it's a requirement to have 2 years of clinical (hospital) experience to be considered. I would like to have more experience in the renal setting, but I know that if I worked at a hospital there's a better chance of that turning into a job when I've completed my internship. So I'm considering completing my hours at a hospital. And just to throw another kink in there, I would really be interested in going to a cancer center and working with individuals because we have not had that experience and I know it would be challenging. What to do?!?


Which way to go?!

Next up is Long Term Care, where I will be at a nursing home. Interested to see what all is involved there, I have been to nursing homes, but haven't researched too much as far as dietitian involvment with residents. I'll let you know how it goes.

~Brittani

"We count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perserverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." ~James 5:11

Some Fun/Gross Happenings

One of my units I recently completed focused on critical care patients. During this rotation I had the opportunity to see some crazy stuff that you would think was only shown in movies.

(if you're queasy about blood/injuries, I would suggest skipping over the next couple of paragraphs)

One of the patients had extreme gangrene on the leg and was having to have it amputated. You could barely tell that it was a leg/foot. It was dark black and swollen. They had already had the other leg amuputated from the same condition.

Another patient had a hematoma explosion (basically a big bruise, the blood comes out of the blood vessels and accumulates in the space below the skin) on the leg. The blood had gotten so pressurized in its compartment under the skin that it had no where else to go but out, so the skin seemed to tear itself apart and there was a flap just hanging out on the side of the leg and I was able to see what was underneath the skin. (blood, muscle) Awesome! I think I just found my case study patient.

I love horror movies, so blood and guts don't bother me. One thing me and my husband have in common.

Bring on the Blood! :)

On a lighter note... A small group of us held a cooking demonstration for a senior center that focused on baking with sweetners versus real sugar. We made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars, Pudding and Lemonade. I of course brought my pink kitchen utensils from home to demonstrate with :) and got a lot of compliements from the ladies. One of the audience members thought I was there promoting Williams Sonoma. (I wish! Dream Job!)



Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

During my cardiovascular unit I had the opportunity to give a heart healthy education to a patient who had just recently undergone heart surgery. And did I flop that one... I stumbled many a time during the session, my information didn't flow well and I'm sure the patient thought how the he$$ did this girl get in here?! Needless to say I think I need ALOT more practice providing patient education. Luckily the patient had already had a full education by one of the dietitians, she just let me "re-educate" her for some practice.

The Fort Worth Dietetics Association had it's monthly meeting this month and the topic was on the independant film "My McDiet: A Drive-Thru Weight Loss Story". I purchased a copy at the meeting, but still have yet to find the time to sit and watch it. Apparently its a rebuttal to the 2004 film "SuperSize Me" by Morgan Spurlock (which I get sucked in to watching it anytime it's on TV, just fascinating!) But I am interested to see this new take on the fast food industry. Once I watch it, I'll let you know! You can find more information here: My McDiet

Fun Fact of the Week: One of the beers my husband enjoys drinking, the name of it just happens to also be a medical condition. Delirium Tremens. The medical definition: a severe form of alchol withdrawal that involves sudden and severe mental or nervous system changes. The beer: produced by Huyghe Brewery in Belgium, it features pictures of pink elephants that patients have hallucinated during their own delirium tremens, latin for "trembling madness", recovery.

~Brittani

"Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty, For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal." ~ Job 5:17-18