The topic of our group presentation was counselling techniques in regards to supplements, specifically focusing on how to approach counselling clients in regards to supplements. As is often the case with group work, this process was a great learning experience that presented both ups and downs.
Our first challenge was choosing a topic and narrowing it down to one that could be covered in a short forty minute presentation. To do this we started by looking at what is current in the field of nutrition that we could see facing in future practice. After much deliberation, we decided to focus on how to council people in regards to vitamins and supplements. Once we had a broad topic we then had the challenge of narrowing it down. After further brain storming we decided to focus on two extremes of potential clients we might have, one being someone who does not want to take supplements, and someone who does, and how to incorporate the method of Rolling with Resistance to successfully council them. We also decided to touch on the topic of when it is appropriate to recommend supplements, and when we should encourage a dietary approach. Overall this process gave us more experience in developing topics that are within the scope of the given presentation.
Our second stumbling block came with the logistics of trying to organize a time and place that would work for all six group members to meet. Although this was already a challenging task given the short time frame to complete the assignment, the fact that our group members live quite far apart was also a challenge. We were however to resolve this difficulty in the end through negotiation and the use of google docs. This is a good lesson as in the future we will be working in diverse teams of healthcare professionals that have different schedules that may be hard to coordinate. Having experience in being flexible and creative in planning I believe will be beneficial in such circumstances
The final challenge we faced was all agreeing on exactly what we wanted to include in the presentation. Working in a group of six people, it is inevitable that people are going to have different ideas on what to include in the presentation. Although we had a few difficulties agreeing on what to include, in the end we came to a compromise, that everyone felt comfortable with. This is another scenario that will be seen in future practice. Whenever groups of people are working together such as in an inter-professional healthcare team, there are going to be different opinions and having the experience of negotiating through such situations will be very valuable.
Overall planning this class presentation was a great learning experience that enabled us to further develop a number of different skills that we can utilize in our future careers as Dietitian’s.