Former UW-Green Bay Dietetic Intern Responses

We recently sent out a survey to all of our former interns and here are their responses:

Did your internship prepare you for your first and subsequent positions?

• Provided basic knowledge and tools to perform as a clinical RD.

• It gave me a basic overview and introduction to the many different areas where dietitians practice; I really feel that you will get out of the internship what you put into your rotations and studies.

• I felt very confident.

• Going to several long term care facilities was very helpful.
• This internship did a great job of applying all aspects of dietetics during our 10 month period.
• The internship at UWGB gave me a great foundation of all areas of nutrition, community, clinical and food service. The skills that I gained during the internship have given me the confidence and competency to succeed in my career.
• Met basic requirements - experience is valuable.
• I haven't secured a dietitian job yet, but I feel that I am prepared to enter this field. I'm looking forward to finding a job where I can use the skills and knowledge I gained during my internship.
• I felt adequately prepared for entry-level clinical dietetics positions.

What aspects of your UW-Green Bay internship do you find especially valuable in your career?

• Overall, we touched on so many roles for dietitians in community, food service and acute-care settings that I was introduced to a variety of styles, philosophies, and opportunities available; I feel the internship's strong focus on outcomes, and the planning and implementation of programs for many people from different backgrounds (i.e. health professionals, community members) helped me to always be proactive in quality monitoring and improvement in my own department; I feel the internship encouraged us to "think outside the box" and enabled us to format the experience based on our own ideas.

• Meeting other professional RD's and developing a network of relationships to keep up-to-date on things.

• I believe the one-on-one shadowing of the various dietitians was the most valuable. This experience made me aware of the different job responsibilities of each.

• The variety - able to get an idea on all/many different aspects of the dietetic field.

•  Being able to see so many situations and interacting with many different professionals helped me learn to quickly build rapport.

• Well rounded. Worked and met a lot of good contact RD's (and other professionals).

• The internship game me a little experience in many different areas of dietetics. It helped show all the areas you can specialize in.

• The opportunity to work in hospitals from community (small) to trauma.

• Clinical/Hospital. Other interns had clinical experiences in their 4-year programs in my class, but I hadn't, so this was the first exposure I had to charting and the compilation of all disciplines for individual patients.

• The designing and implementing of the nutrition care plan - these were very valuable in understanding what was happening with the patient and meeting their nutrition needs.

• The community portion was very helpful in getting me familiar with the resources and services many of my client families (low income, at risk populations) utilize or are eligible to utilize within our community.

• Public speaking - the more practice with this, the better and more comfortable I am with it.

• The variety of rotations allowed me to explore and learn from a variety of dietitians.

• The extra assignments (observing a heart surgery, bariatric class, colonoscopy, etc.) - nice to know about things that patients go through.
• Multiple and varied experiences (internship is not geared to a specific task); research and presentation to community groups, peers, professionals; food service and school food service rotations; emphasis on continued development and lifelong learning.

• The internship really helped me decide which areas of dietetics I wanted to work in. The WIC rotation prepared me for my current job.

• Familiarity with TPN/TF in variety of settings; community nutrition education related to UW-Extension and Head-Start.

• WIC program experience; working in a group with the other interns.

• It was valuable to observe and participate in assessments and patient education.

• The exposure to the medical community, medical terminology and management principles were extremely helpful in my career.

• I thought most experiences contributed well to my knowledge.

• I found the UW-Green Bay DI experience to be very valuable to me for many reasons. #1 - the variety of experiences I was exposed to and the several rotation sites we practiced in. I ended up being hired by two employers who were in my rotations. I was also able to observe several methods of screening, educating, etc. which allowed me to develop my own method using the best of each way I learned.

• The connections/resources obtained thru the internship.

• Care planning.

• I enjoyed the community rotation and projects that we did. I hope to get a job in community nutrition, and our internship provided a good range of experiences in this area.

• The exposure to many facilities and people.

• Preparing nutrition presentations for groups, such as cooking demonstration and Oneida diabetes lunch; hands on nutrition education experience at Bellin, WIC, St. Mary's, etc.; learning care plan process and applying - especially with case presentations.

• Learning how to go through a chart and complete assessments. Also learning how to chart information properly and effectively.