Medical Nutrition Therapy Rotation, End of Week 2

Well hello there! It’s been a few weeks since my last installment of Pancreas in Progress, so I thought it would be the perfect time to catch everyone up on what’s been going on. If this is your first time stumbling across the inner ramblings of a master’s student in dietetics working through her supervised practice, then welcome. If you have been on this journey with me from the beginning, then I bet you are as excited about this last chapter as I am.

This blog started as a requirement, but I wanted to make it more than that. My hope is that whoever comes across this, whether you be a student, someone considering changing careers and going back to school, or just a friend checking in, that you take something away from each entry. Whether that be learning more about dietetics or simply enjoying the situations I manage to get myself into, I’m glad you’re here.

So let me catch you up. After 17 grueling (I’m being a little facetious here) weeks split between my community and food service rotations, I was finally able to take a much needed break. What did I do during that week? Well, besides overpacking to move into my childhood home for the summer, my whole family got together to visit one of my happy places, St. Louis, Missouri.

A chilly day for May baseball, but the Hantle’s have never needed perfect weather to have a good time. Give us family, Cardinals baseball, and a chance to make memories together, and we’re happy campers.

Amidst a St. Louis Cardinals game, the City Museum, and a trip to the St. Louis Zoo, we were able to spend time with my cousins and enjoy an outdoor movie night featuring the 1994 classic Angels in the Outfield. The little kids weren’t quite as enamored with this movie as my millennial cousins and I were, and we may have paid the price for laying on blankets in the grass through the numerous bug bites we suffered. But as it always is when our family gets together, the food was great and the laughter never ceased, leaving me energized and ready to tackle my final clinical rotation.

The kiddos lasted about 5 minutes before they decided this movie was to “Old” for them 🤷🏻‍♀️ but the adults sure enjoyed it.

That brings us up to the present, where I have survived my first two weeks of my clinical rotation with Baptist Health Paducah, and let me tell you, what a start it has been. Before my first day, I was having all the feelings associated with a new site rotation. On one hand, I was excited to be back in my hometown, spending time with my parents, getting slightly pampered as only the youngest child can be, and in some small way feeling like I would be able to give something back to the community where I grew up. But I also had this tiny nugget of dread because I wasn’t sure that I was really prepared to step into the clinical role.

My mom’s calla lilies bloomed the week I came home. Maybe it’s coincidence, but it felt like a fitting welcome and a beautiful reminder that growth often shows up right when you’re stepping into a new chapter.

It may be just me but I had it in my mind that this rotation was going to be the hardest one. I expected it to push me well beyond my comfort zone, and I worried that I had screwed the pooch, so to speak, by not preparing myself better beforehand.

In some ways, that expectation has been right on target. Even within the first week, I could see the challenge of this rotation and how the technical knowledge we learned in class is transferred into real-world practice while also taking into account countless other considerations. The true challenge has been finding out how to balance the academic side of my brain with the reality that patients don’t come wrapped up in a bow with only one critical condition or comorbidity and that sometimes interventions compete with one another, requiring a great deal of critical thinking to determine what is best for the patient (CRDN 1.5).

All of that to say that while this rotation is challenging because it requires us to stretch ourselves and our knowledge, it is also rewarding to know that we, as future dietitians, have both the knowledge and the opportunity to make a meaningful impact.

Although I was nervous, and if I’m being honest, a little intimidated before this rotation, the welcome I have received from the team at Baptist Health Paducah has been phenomenal. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that as an intern you are just starting out, especially when you are surrounded by seasoned veterans of the profession. We often place unrealistic expectations on our own shoulders, feeling as though we should remember every detail from our Medical Nutrition Therapy classes.

While it certainly helps to remember the fundamentals, we have the opportunity to learn and grow from those around us. The diversity of knowledge and experience among the Paducah team has been remarkable and has already made the first two weeks fascinating. Being able to learn in this setting has helped me realize that I know and remember more than I often give myself credit for.

I’m excited for the next two months, to see how I can grow and what I can offer through future patient interactions and experiences. If these first two weeks have taught me anything, it’s that clinical nutrition isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about learning how to ask the right questions, think critically, and continue growing alongside the patients we serve.

“One step closer, one lesson learned, and always in progress.”