Day in the Life of a Pediatric Dietetic Intern

 Written By: Katie Henslee; SLU Dietetic Intern

One of the many reasons I chose Saint Louis University to complete my dietetic internship and Master’s degree was the unique option of a pediatrics concentration. During my undergraduate studies I was exposed to pediatric nutrition, and I fell in love with the idea of helping little humans create a strong foundation of nutrition that they can carry with them throughout their entire life. Working with pediatrics is composed not only of working with kids, but also their family members. It can be a challenge to effectively communicate with an entire family, but seeing the results is so rewarding. Dietetic internships can be crazy busy, but prioritizing and time management have made my experience amazing so far. Let me take you along for a day in the life of a pediatric dietetic intern!

A typical day in my life starts around 6:00 am. I wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, and usually rush out the door around 7:00 am. I grew up about 30 minutes outside of St. Louis, so I decided to live with my family during my internship to save money and have some extra support through this challenging program. Although it causes me to have a longer commute, it has been so worth it! One of my favorite parts of each day is my drive to and from the city. I listen to my favorite music, decompress, and get some much needed alone time.

On Mondays we have sessions throughout the day that we get to hear from RDs and other community members about what they do and how it can impact us in our future practice. All of the interns get to spend time in the same place and we learn about so many different topics. Tuesday through Friday we spend out at sites doing various rotations including clinical, community, and food service. I’m currently in my pediatric rotation, so I have spent the past few weeks at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. I usually arrive anytime between 7:45 am and 8:30 am depending on what my schedule looks like for the day. A great thing about rotations at Cardinal Glennon is they allow you to do something different every single day which has allowed me to gain so much hands-on experience. I’ve spent time in the NICU, PICU, outpatient clinics, worked with inpatients, attended rounds with physicians, worked with special needs children, eating disorders, and so much more! I start my day with one dietitian and work with them until about 12:30 pm. Then I will eat lunch, catch up on any work I need to do, and get back to work around 1:00 pm. After lunch I will head off with a different dietitian and finish off the day around 4:00 pm.

This particular day in my life I spent the morning in the NICU with a lactation consultant (which was amazing!) and I spent my afternoon with an RD working in the Complex Medical Care Program outpatient clinic. There I saw children who have multiple medical conditions that are followed by more than one specialty. This clinic allows children and their families to speak with multiple clinicians all in one visit, which helps decrease the amount of time they spend going to doctors appointments. Let me tell you, that clinic was not only amazing to see, but it also challenged me to use MNT in ways that I’ve never been exposed to before.

After I get done with rotations, I will either head home or go to my night class. As a pediatric intern I have class on Monday and Wednesday nights. This semester I am taking Human Nutrition: Physiology and Metabolism II and Pediatric Nutrition (which I have been loving). Wednesdays tend to be long days, but I try to make sure that I don’t have anything to do after class so I can relax for the rest of the night.

I tend to spend my evenings catching up on homework, projects, or working on my capstone. I eat dinner around 6:30 pm, shower, make my lunch, get my clothes ready for the next day, and always make sure to do one thing that makes me happy every single day. I’ll end my day around 10:30 pm and head off to bed to get some rest.

My biggest piece of advice for anyone preparing for a dietetic internship is to always make time for self care and always prioritize things that make you happy. A dietetic internship can be insanely stressful at times, but it has hands down been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Thanks for tagging along on a day in my life! Check out this TikTok to see it in action.