An Off Week

This past week was a rough one getting to the end. I think it was all the meteors flying around Earth.

My last day at WIC consisted of me basically working as a nutritionist, I did nutrition assessments on the clients and also taught nutrition classes to the participants. Thursday morning I was ready with my game face to take the lead, however I was just having a lot of difficulty speaking and spelling. During some of the assessments with clients I kept jumbling my words making it sound as though I was speaking gibberish, this sort of jumbling talk continued with my classes. Not only was I have a hard time articulating, but during class when I was to write key points on the board for the participants, somehow I could not spell. I'm sure the participants were thinking "That TCU education is really paying off..."

An update to my one site I've been skeptical about... Well, after this week, we are back to square one. I thought things were looking up after having the chance to go out with the dietitians to visit with clients, but this week we made client phone calls and I felt I did my best communicating with the individuals, however the dietitian thought otherwise. She left some not so settling comments about our work and journals we submit each week....

And before we left, we had our usual round table discussion in which she discussed professionalism at our internship rotations. (I guess we weren't professional enough that day) To me it kind of came as a threat because she said employers call them all the time for references on students and is felt as though we'd better make our phone calls or they're going to talk bad about you to future employers.

Awesome motivation to really make me excited about this site for the rest of the semester!

Now we are working with TCU Campus Life and working on a health booth and video. Our booth will feature healthy eating tips during travel, because it will take place shortly before spring break and our video will be about low sodium. Which I know TONS of college kids are super worried about their sodium intake... We will just have to be creative on that one!

We also had the opportunity to recipe test for our preceptor appreciation luncheon taking place in May, and the menu is a hit! Everyone that had the opportunity to try our food loved it. So my group and I are looking very much forward to that.

Spring Break is shortly around the corner and I am ready for it!

~Brittani

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." ~1 Peter 5:7

WIC Rotation Ending

My short lived WIC rotation is coming to an end. I really enjoyed working with the girls at my site, especially because they allowed me to work as an employee rather than just observe as a student. I had the opportunity to take height and weight on infants, children and pregnant moms, check iron and facilitate nutrition classes. During my three weeks I also made this snazzy bulletin board for one of the lab rooms. The site I was placed at has a lot of Spanish speaking clients, which is why you see English and Spanish titles. Wish I had kept up with my Spanish from the classes I took so long ago... Would have been really beneficial.

So far my time at the meal delivery site has gone fairly smoothly. I mentioned before I was worried about returning, but so far it's been good. We went out to visit clients in their home and this time I was in charge of the assessment. It is a completely different approach from what I am used to in the hospital setting. We try to have a conversation with the client to gather information rather than an "interview" of question: answer, which is much more difficult than I thought. The dietitian I went out with for my first face to face client visits provided me with great tips and tricks and commended me on my Vitamin K/Coumadin drug/nutrient interaction. :) I really enjoyed taking the lead on the visits. The week prior we made phone calls to check up on clients that the dietitians had visited face to face, which only took the first few to get back into the groove of phone calls.

Week two of our six week cooking class also went well. We had a lot more attend this class. (I think the rain/bad weather week 1 convinced some participants to stay home) The stir fry recipe we made was good and I plan on making the sauce at home. The great thing about the recipes we prepare is that they don't require a great amount of ingredients and can be made with typical pantry staples. (No crazy hard to find ingredients such as: chile de arbol, sambar powder, or soy lecithin granules)

On a personal note, in relation to the comment above, I've been trying to make 1 new recipe each week. Many of the cookbooks we received for our wedding have not been put to as much use as I had originally intended, so I'm really trying to bring them out this year. Some of the cookbooks have some crazy ingredients that I have never heard of or would even know where to begin looking for. I also don't have the time/energy to make a recipe that calls for 20+ ingredients. Some of the winners include: Lemon Chicken (Barefoot Contessa), Honey-Balsamic Sweet Potatoes (Williams Sonoma),  Island (Jerk) Chicken and Pineapple (Sandra Lee) and Crock Pot Chicken Pot Pie (Real Simple Magazine). Andy's really enjoying being my taste tester!


~Brittani

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." ~Proverbs 16:3

Getting Into the Swing of Things

Our second week back, we spent quite a lot of time with the TCU Career Services on Cover Letter, Resume and Interviewing tips, tricks and techniques. The career advisor for the Science and Engineering school is awesome and she provided us with a lot of helpful information. It makes me nervous though for applying to jobs, going through the interview process and the waiting game to hear if you got it or not. I really don't want to think about it!


This is how I'm going to feel while on the job hunt

I have a mock interview scheduled with them next week, in which we will be interviewing with our career advisor, while being videotaped, and then we have to review it and write up a summary of how we think it went. (I really don't like watching myself on film, awkward...)

My small group is coordinating the luncheon at the end of the semester to thank all of our current and previous preceptors for giving us the opportunity to work with them. I think we were all very excited to hear that we would be directing that. Planning on going with an island/carribean/rainforest theme. (Jerk chicken, grilled pineapple, possible bananas foster) Still a lot of time until this takes place, so more details later.
 

Jerk Chicken and Pineapple, yum yum!

Started at WIC this week. I haven't decided yet if this rotation makes me excited to have kids or want to push them off until later. The babies are really cute, but when you have several of them crying in a large room with no audio absorbing material... OMG!! I've seen some not even a week old come in with their mom. We even had a young mom come into the clinic who didn't know she was pregnant until she was in the delivery room. She stated she went into the hospital on Saturday for foot issues and next thing she knew she was in the delivery room delivering a child. I could not imagine... Makes me think of that show "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant" and that I thought all the individuals were just embellishing, but apparently it really does happen.

I did have the opportunity to sit in with the Breastfeeding Counselor and listen to her discuss the importance and benefits of breastfeeding. Being an advocate myself I really enjoyed hearing more about it.

A good website with more info for anyone interested here: www.breastmilkcounts.com

This rotation also provided a good chunk of reading homework to look through; all about pregnancy, breastfeeding, infant and child nutrition and feeding tips and tricks. There's a DVD in there too. So after only one week I'm set and much more knowledgeable about having a kid myself. (However, that's still a few years off, no Junior Castles running around yet, still have to see how the pet test goes first!)

As I have said before, this first part of the semester we are all over Fort Worth. In addition to the sites discussed above, the six week cooking class session started this past week and we have a great group of participants and the food we prepared was really good! Our first cooking class was a hit: Veggie Quesadillas, yum :) We did run over the allotted time a little bit, but we were just having too much fun.

The days are going by way too fast and I feel this semester is going to fly by! With all the discussions on graduation and the RD exam, I have already begun to have nightmares about not completing my requirements, failing the exam or not knowing any of the answers to the questions. I really hope they don't last.
~Brittani

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him." ~Psalm 127:3

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