What?

On February 2nd, May and I visited the Reproductive Mental Health Clinic to shadow Anita Gillespie. It was a quiet Friday morning and we were lucky to have a tour of not only her clinic but nearby clinics such as the Perinatal Clinic, Eating Disorders Clinic (inpatient and outpatient), and other sections of Women’s Hospital. We also sat in and shadowed her counselling session with a client.
—–
So What?

This was a wonderful opportunity to shadow a dietitian in an outpatient-style clinic. In FNH 380 I shadowed a clinical dietitian on a surgery ward at Lion’s Gate and this felt like a completely different atmosphere and work environment. Anita expressed how her position, along with many of the psychiatrists, was 1 day a week. This has potential implications for the level of communication between health care professionals. In my experience at Lion’s Gate, there were daily rounds with ongoing and tight communication between health care professionals. Here, it felt like a much more relaxed environment wherein patients could be seen by a dietitian at their own leisure.

I was interested in shadowing at this particular clinic as my cousin, who graduated from the program in 2014, had worked as the RD at this clinic for some time. It was lovely to be able to see the environment and get a feel for the daily tasks and the types of patients she would see. Anita also made mention of a group workshop session that she was beginning to implement for mothers to attend with their babies. I thought this was a great initiative and responsibility that she was taking on out of pure interest and a craving to help make a change outside of her counselling sessions.
—–
Now what?

Anita was very open to being a resource for us in the future should we have questions about courses, work environment and internship. I would very much likely to volunteer or shadow again in this area (ex. perinatal) in the future.

Through our conversation, she brought up the complicated politics surrounding superiority within a unionized system. She mentioned wishing there was some information on this during her schooling to prepare/educate her on how it worked. This proved to be quite valuable as a group in our class is working on a workshop on the topic of preparing for employment after internship. I used her experience to inform the group on a potential area of focus. So I look forward to learning more on that topic through their work session.

• Year 4