Dietitians are food and nutrition educators, and we share our knowledge with all age groups. One of our assignments this spring was to create and teach a lesson to grades 4-6. This assignment was designed to give us exposure to creating lesson plans and delivering a nutrition education session to a target audience. In our 381 class we had two dietitians, one from Vancouver Coastal Health and one from BCDA come and do an education workshop with us. From there we partnered up and made a lesson plan, based on topic ideas given to us from the teachers. On Tuesday May 12th we all spent the day teaching in schools all around Vancouver. Joelle and I taught at Dorothy Lynas on the North Shore. The main focus of our lesson was sustainability and the environmental impact of food. We discussed whole foods that are healthy for the body and good to the planet and we ended with a section on sugary beverages which we tied into sustainable choices. Often sugary beverages come in a lot of packaging, and this is contributes to excess waste. Joelle and I created our lesson plan in time to send it to the supervising dietitians and teachers, in order to receive any feedback they thought necessary before giving the lesson. The dietitians and teachers were happy with the topics we chose which was great to know going into the lesson. Attached here is a copy of the lesson plan we created.
Tag Archives: Professional Practice
Writing a Consumer Article
As dietitians we will be doing quite a bit of writing, whether it be nutrition and health articles, columns in newspapers, or charting. It is important to start practicing consumer writing skills early in our education. As part of the 381 Dietetic Practice class we were introduced to the skills needed for writing consumer articles. In this assignment we chose a dietitian in the community and she gave us a topic to write about. My partner and I worked with Natasha Barber, a Registered Dietitian and Registered Clinical Counsellor, and our topic was coconut oil. In the article we discussed three health claims that have been made about coconut oil and we delved into the facts surrounding these claims. We also compared the cost of coconut oil and olive oil, to illustrate to consumers the large price difference between coconut oil and other vegetable oils. Finally, we tied everything together with some take home messages and key considerations to make when choosing a cooking oil. After writing the first draft of our paper, two classmates were assigned to give us feedback on our article. We did the same for their consumer article, and we spent some time in class discussing the papers. This was an extremely helpful exercise, and we took these edits and feedback into careful consideration when making our second draft. Upon completion, we sent our final draft to Natasha so that she could provide us with feedback for the future. Please find attached our first and final drafts of the article. We went through several edits, which was an excellent exercise for future writing.
Self Evaluation: End of Term
I have taken a few moments to reflect on my first year in the UBC Dietetics Program. Please see the link below to read about my thoughts and experiences thus far. I am so happy with how the first semester has gone and I am very excited to continue on in the program.
Self Assessment and Learning Experience I: HIV/AIDS & SALOME Study
In preparation for applying to the UBC Dietetic Program, I did a lot of volunteering, work and job shadowing which all contributed to my current knowledge of the profession. While all my experiences have been educational, there are a few that stick out in my mind as extremely valuable and which have contributed greatly to my success in the program. About 15 months ago I began volunteering in the Downtown Eastside at the Cross- Town addictions clinic on Hastings and Abbott Street. At the position I work alongside the social workers, nurses and dietitian. At the addictions clinic, a study was being done to assess long-term opioid medication effectiveness (SALOME), and my role was to visit with the clients before and after self-injectoin, to make coffee and to complete any tasks the nurses, social workers and dietitian needed done. Within this role, I was introduced Jen, the dietitian that I volunteered with on a few occasions. She works in both the Immunodeficiency Clinic at St. Paul’s and at the Addictions Clinic. I shadowed Jen at the addictions clinic and helped with a few lunchtime meal programs, where food would be purchased for the study participants. I also had the opportunity to speak with Jen about her position as a Providence Health dietitian, and she explained her various roles within the Immunodeficiency clinic. I also helped out at a cooking class she holds at the Immunodeficiency Clinic, where I helped HIV+ participants prepare and cook healthy meals. This cooking program was designed to help low income patients living with HIV to learn about healthy food and to learn important cooking skills.
This volunteering experience with Providence Health has helped expose me to an area of dietetics in which I am particularly interested. I would like to work within the Downtown Eastside as an advocate for this marginalized population, and to help find ways to create sustainable meal programs that offer nutritious, safe and acceptable food to the community. The importance of nutrition advocacy has been forefront in my work at the Cross-Town clinic, and I have learned a lot about increased nutrition needs for chronic disease sufferers. Jen helps educate participants about food and healthy eating, and during my volunteering I was able to witness this. In addition, I also learned that nutrition education can be met with some resistance, so it is important to present information in a way that meets the specific needs of each patient. In an environment where healthy eating is not necessarily a priority, educating patients about nutrition requires first gaining trust and creating a safe environment. I think that this volunteer opportunity has afforded me opportunities to work on the competencies that are required for successful completion of the dietetics program and it certainly made me more confident applying to the program. Specifically, I have been able to hone my communication and collaboration skills in this setting, because it is vital to establish trust and rapport with participants if they are to feel comfortable in your presence. Since this is a marginalized population it was very important for me be respectful and to treat everyone with the utmost digit and care that they deserve.
Specifically, below are a list of the specific competency performance indicators I worked on:
Professional Practice
Maintain client confidentiality and and privacy
Ensure informed consent
Demonstrate knowledge of the elements of professional boundaries
Demonstrate knowledge of the role and features of job description
Communication and Collaboration
Use appropriate communication technique(s)
Demonstrate knowledge of opportunities for and barriers to, communication
Speak clearly and concisely in a manner responsive to the needs of the listener(s)
Establish rapport
Communicate in a respectful manner
Recognize opportunities to contribute to the learning of others
Site Visit – St Paul’s Hospital
Description
On Wednesday, October 8th a fellow classmate, Laree, and I visited St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver. We spent the afternoon with Sinead Feeney, Clinical RD. We split our time between Sinead and Johnny Wu, the Food Services Supervisor in the kitchen of St. Paul’s.
St. Paul’s Hospital is an acute care, research and teaching hospital. It is located on 1081 Burrard St. in downtown Vancouver and it is home to many programs and services such as HIV/AIDS, mental health, heart and lung services, cardiac care and critical care, to name a few. Sinead is a Clinical Cardiac Dietitian and so works in the cardiac unit of St Paul’s Hospital. When we met with Sinead she sat down with us and explained the work that she does as a Dietitian in an acute setting. As we asked her questions she deflected them back towards us, which I thought was a really excellent way to get us thinking about the profession by using what we have already learned as Dietetics Students. As we went through the series of questions we had, we tried to answer them and Sinead would help us out and also give extra explanations to ensure that we had a thorough understanding of what she does in the hospital.
After chatting with Sinead for about half an hour, we met Johnny, who is the Food Services Supervisor in the hospital kitchen. Johnny was very enthusiastic and helpful and took us on a tour of the entire two-floor kitchen. He was more than happy to answer any questions we had and just as Sinead had been, he was very thorough and informative. Johnny showed us where the food for all the meals is stored and prepped, and he gave us some background on policies and procedures the kitchen staff follow. Johnny also introduced us to other members of the Food Service Team. During this visit we went through an example of a patient menu, which has a variety of foods that the patient from which the patient chooses. The hospital works on a two week rotation, meaning every two weeks the menu starts over again. This is to help ensure that patients receive a variety of different foods. In addition to menu cards the hospital provides comment cards to the patients so they can express their likes and dislikes for different aspects of the menu.
Reflection
In my preparation for the dietetics course at UBC, I shadowed quite a few dietitians in acute, residential, and community settings. I really valued this particular site visit because I had not ever had the opportunity to speak with a Dietitian working in an acute Cardiac setting. I had a mentor a few years ago who was a Dietitian working in an outpatient Cardiac centre, so I feel that this most recent experience has added to my exposure to the profession. Sinead was quite informative and went into a lot of detail about the different roles and responsibilities a clinical Dietitian has. One thing that I am excited for during internship is be able to do some hands-on learning in the field, and I felt that this visit with Sinead really got me thinking about all the roles of a clinical dietitian; things I have not yet learned in my education thus far. Although I am not yet sure what direction I want to go with my career, I do think that Clinical Dietetics appeals to me. The amount of exposure to different areas of healthcare and different healthcare professionals you would have as a Clinical Dietitian interests me, and this visit has made me revisit these thoughts. In our site report we named ten different roles of a Clinical Dietitian, some of which include education, working in an interdisciplinary team, advocacy and helping patients improve their health. These are just a few examples, and these are also many of the reasons I want to be a Dietitian. Education, health and advocacy on behalf of others are just three of the aspects of Dietetics I value, and it is experiences like this site visit that reaffirms my interest in the profession.
In addition to finding things that I am extremely passionate about, this site visit helped me address some things within the program that make me nervous. It was nice to meet a Dietitian in a clinical setting and to talk briefly about internship. While I am extremely excited for the next few years of my education, sometimes it can feel overwhelming. It is helpful to talk to other students and professionals about our career path since everyone has felt nervous and excited at different points during this process.
Although Johnny is not a Dietitian it was quite helpful to talk to him and have him explain the processes that take place within a hospital kitchen. I sat down with a Food Services Dietitian once a few years ago, and this visit with Johnny helped remind me of the different roles and responsibilities that we had discussed back then. Although I am not quite sure if Food Services appeals to me, it is still very important to gain as much exposure as possible to different areas of the profession. I think that, after this site visit, I will seek out more Food Service Dietitians to speak with, as this might help me educate me a bit more on this very important job. It certainly seems like it takes a large amount of organization and leadership skill to run a large hospital kitchen, and this is something I appreciated about Johnn’y s tour. He seemed to have an excellent rapport with the other staff members and he was very friendly and patient with his co-workers, skills that are necessary for a good supervisor.
After visiting St. Paul’s I feel as if I have learned even more about the many areas in which a Dietitian can work. It was nice to get to know more professionals in the field, and it was also nice to get to know another of my classmates. All of these experiences are going to help in my future years of school and internship by allowing me to draw upon them when making future career and education decisions. I look forward to the next opportunity!
Please feel free to read our site report here: