Halfway Through the Dietetic Internship: 5 Surprising Things I have Learned so Far

By: Maci Louwagie

Hello everyone! Happy New Year! This year is exciting for me as I will be (hopefully) completing my Dietetic Internship and Master’s degree in August! Yay! The new year got me reflecting a little bit about this past year and the past few months as a Dietetic Intern. I am over halfway through my Master’s program and have about 6 months left of rotations. I have learned quite a bit the past few months and have really enjoyed finally applying all I have been learning the past 4 years of undergrad. There were things I was expecting to learn and then there are always things that you learn that aren’t so expected.

I have gained so much knowledge from my classes and the rotations I have been in and that was expected. I expected to learn more about physiology and nutrition, how to educate on nutrition, and how to interact with a patient. I also expected to learn a lot about what the every-day life is like for a dietitian, and of course how to be an effective dietitian in the setting you are working in. I have learned a lot about becoming a dietitian and am gaining the knowledge, experience, and training that I need to be an effective one. After all, that is what this internship is all about. There are, however, things I have learned the past few months that I was not expecting to learn. I am sure every intern has their own list of surprising things they have learned during their internship but here are my top 5 halfway through: 

1. Every dietitian is different; I can be my own kind of dietitian

I have worked with a variety of dietitians in my rotations so far and none of them were alike. My fellow interns and I, we all share a similar passion for health but even working with them has shown me that everyone does things differently and no matter who you are, what qualities you have or don’t have, you can succeed and be an effective dietitian. Each dietitian writes their notes differently, has different day-to-day schedules, views their patients differently, prioritizes their goals differently, and is passionate about different health and nutrition topics. Just because one person writes their notes a certain way, or is passionate about kids or geriatrics, or interacts with a patient/client a certain way, does not mean that I or anyone else must do those things or be passionate about those things. I get to be my own dietitian. I get to take pieces from all the dietitians and places and experiences I have learned from, as well as my own qualities, passions, and quirks and build myself into being the effective dietitian I desire to be. I don’t have to be someone else. I don’t have to do things the way other people do them. I can learn from other people, but I don’t have to be them. I have learned and am still learning not to compare myself with others but to learn and grow from others in order to find my own success in what I do and become.

2. Many people don’t have the proper education they need to make healthful decisions

I grew up probably like a lot of my fellow interns: chugging mountain dews, eating out multiple times a week, and not having a care to what I ate as a child and teenager. Now looking back on all my bad choices, I want to be like “whyyyyy would I ever do that to myself” BUT, the thing is, I didn’t know. My parents didn’t know. I was not really educated on proper nutrition. But I was not and am not, the only one who grew up with lack of education about nutrition and many people grow up with a lack of education in general for numerous reasons. So,  how can we expect people to make healthful choices when they don’t know? How can we look at people and judge others by thinking “wow I can’t believe they are feeding their kids that” or “wow these people should’ve known better” when many people just don’t have the proper education they need? We cannot place expectations on people when we don’t know what kind of education they had or have. I have talked to many patients and coworkers and many things they say surprise me. Many people don’t know that pop (yes, it is POP when you are from MN) is loaded with sugar, or that “healthy” things such as yogurt and granola bars also are. Many people don’t know how much added sugar we are recommended per day, or what foods have certain vitamins and minerals, or that going on “detox” diets won’t fix all your problems. Many people hear things from the media or other people and just believe those things. Most people don’t know how to look at research and interpret it or to tell good sources from bad. Someone asked me the other day at a health fair, “I have heard that one egg a day is too many, is it okay if I have eggs sometimes?” Of COURSE! (one egg a day is NOT too many by the way). There is no such thing as a dumb question when it comes to nutrition and that is something I have learned. Don’t expect everyone to be as educated as you are. Most people are not and we cannot expect people to make healthful decisions when they just have no idea what that is or looks like. As dietitians, we can be the ones to give people credible and reliable nutrition education and that is exciting to me. 

(Exhibit A: people see things like this in the media or online somewhere and trust it without knowing that this is virtually impossible but how would they know?) 

3. Foodservice businesses are families

Before starting this internship, I was not looking forward to my foodservice rotations. As dietetic interns, we must get 8 weeks of experience in foodservice. I just wanted to get them over with to be honest. I thought to myself, “well I am not going to learn much or enjoy it. Just get through it.” Well, believe it or not, I have done 6 weeks of foodservice and leaving those rotations has been harder than leaving my clinical ones. Not because I became more passionate about foodservice itself, but because of the amazing people and foodservice families I met and became a part of. The strangers I met became the people that have been the hardest to say goodbye to. Foodservice workers become family and interact like family in a way. They fight, disagree, gossip, complain, get on each other’s nerves, but they also love one another, support one another, make each other laugh, fill in for one another, train one another, and get to know one another. They celebrate one another, write cards and collect a donation for someone if they have a parent or loved one pass away, ask one another if they are okay, and they take on newbies like me and welcome them into the family. These people cracked me up and welcomed me kindly and lovingly. They all work extremely hard, and no, foodservice employees are not perfect and they make mistakes but they have great intentions to do the best job they can. I became close with a lot of people and it was always so hard to say goodbye. I was at two different hospitals for my foodservice rotations and I felt like part of the family in both of them. This is something I did not expect. 

(me celebrating ugly Christmas sweater day with some of my foodservice coworkers!) 

4. Don’t judge a book by its cover

This one comes back to my number 2 a little bit. A simple but critical thing I have learned is that we cannot judge anyone as we don’t know their story. Sometimes, we can look at people, and as health professionals, we can make judgements about how people look, are shaped, if they are overweight and/or underweight, etc. The reality is though is that everyone has a story and we do not know it. We can’t assume someone is overweight because they can’t control themselves and eat too much. We don’t know their genetics, their household they grew up in, their economic situations, and what they have gone through to lose the weight. We cannot assume someone is underweight because they just are stubborn and won’t eat. We don’t know what is going on inside their head, the physiological processes behind their condition, their history or genetics, or the amount of times they have tried to gain the weight back but just can’t yet. We don’t know their education levels or how they grew up. So, don’t judge or make assumptions until you get to know someone. As future health professionals and future dietitians, this is a continual challenge for all of us.

5. We can make a difference in people’s lives if we tailor our nutrition interventions to the client/patient

Individualize, Individualize, Individualize. That is the key to being an effective dietitian. We learn in school all the physiological processes of the body, all the disease states, and all the nutritional interventions that should match each one. We learn what we SHOULD be eating and teaching others to eat. However, there is no one formula or right answer we can use for every person we are nutritionally counseling. And I had heard that we had to individualize before this internship but actually interacting with my own patients and clients has taught me that every person is different, even if they have the same disease or coming in for the same reason. Every person’s lifestyle, family situations, genetics, backgrounds, psychological state, motivation level, etc. are different. I cannot preach the same message or make the same nutritional plan for every person. The key to making a difference in people’s lives nutritionally is individualizing my plan and intervention to that unique person. We can, and we will have an impact if we focus in on what THAT person wants, needs, and is willing to do because not everyone is the same. We will not make a difference if we treat every person or disease state the same. I love this aspect of being a dietitian because this means that no day, no patient or client, no disease we encounter is ever the same.

I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about what I have un-expectantly learned through my (almost) first half of my internship. It is a good reminder to keep your mind open in the dietetic internship and in life and you never know what you can and will learn!