What?
As a part of our FNH 381 May course, my partner, Alexa, and I had the opportunity to create a consumer-focused hand out for a dietitian on Vancouver Island through Saanich Community Health Services. This hand out was to be distributed to people who have recently been discharged from the hospital and may be experiencing a loss of weight and strength. Our hand-out contains sources of energy and nutrient-dense foods, recommendations and tips for including them into each meal of the day, an an ‘FAQ’ section answering common questions that may arise.
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So What?
This topic was interesting to me because of two reasons:
1. We, as dietetics students and future dietitians, are used to having experiences with people looking to lose weight that the notion of gaining weight is often overlooked even though it can be equally as stigmatizing.
2. I myself and searched for healthful and sustainable ways of gaining weight.

What immediately struck me about this concept was the importance of context. It is imperative to understand and acknowledge the context of the reason behind an individual’s desire to gain weight. Are they an athlete who is looking to increase muscle mass? Are the a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, who is losing weight? Have they just had surgery? These can impact the tone and content of the consumer article so it is critical to be aware of these frameworks.

Our focus was on patients who recently came home from the hospital and are likely home-bound. Therefore we accommodated for this context by focusing on easy to make foods and focused less on physical activity.
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Now What?
I hope that this hand-out will positively impact the community of interest in Saanich and that Danielle will build on the information in this hand-out to create individualized recommendations for her clients in her counselling sessions. Alexa and I look forward to continuing on to make any needed adjustments for Danielle, should they arise.

Some of her other article topics were of interest to me as well: ‘Nutrition for Wound Healing’ and ‘Nutrition Challenges with Dementia’. Perhaps in the future I will look into these topics and research them for myself as I have not had extensive training in these areas and would love to gain some knowledge.

• Year 3