This week I started a new rotation at a private practice–this is my last new rotation of the semester.
Here’s what my week looked like:
Monday: I was originally scheduled to do make-up data collection at the high school, but we had such a high original turnout that they didn’t need the help and I didn’t have to go in. I was in Minnesota over the weekend; it was really nice to get that email so that I could spend all of Sunday with my family and drive back to Illinois today instead.
Tuesday: I started my rotation at a private practice. They work primarily in long-term care on menu planning, staff relief, and consultations. After being oriented to the office, I did some work finding and modifying recipes for a client they have. They’re creating a four week rotating menu for a long-term care facility. The dietitian who owns the practice already wrote the menus, so now we have to go through and find/revise recipes to fill in the menu. She doesn’t come in to the office I’m supposed to work in very often, so I didn’t get a chance to meet her yet. Finding and standardizing recipes is not my favorite thing to do, but it is interesting to see how recipes are selected and modified to meet the needs of this particular client. His facility doesn’t have professional cooks, so we have to make sure all of the recipes are simple and easy to understand.
Wednesday: The chiropractor was working today in the office as well, and she uses a lot of essential oils, so the entire office smelled like sage. :P I continued working on finding recipes for the menu, and started revising some recipes already in the system. They recently purchased a new recipe software system where they’ll store all of the recipes for their clients. This software comes with a lot of recipes already programmed into it, though they aren’t written in the form this practice uses. I started going through some of these recipes that are on the menu and modifying them so that they’re in the appropriate form for our clients. Some of the recipes are written strangely and with odd amounts of ingredients. For example, a recipe might call for 2 ⅞ onions instead of just rounding to 3. I didn’t have to leave early today for my class, since Loyola is right down the street which was very nice after having to drive almost 2 hours to class from my WIC rotation. At class, we talked about cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the public health implications of it. We also worked on a case study where we identified the risk factors for CVD in patient examples.
Thursday: I continued working on finding recipes for the menu and did some work organizing the menu items into categories. Basically, I sorted all of the salads, sandwiches, hot entrees, fruits, vegetables, beverages, desserts, etc. and then further sorted them into chicken entrees, fish entrees, etc. A four week menu, of 3 meals a day, means that we’re working with a lot of recipes–so organization is important. Then, I started going through and editing more of the recipes that came with the new software to get them in the right format.
Friday: Another flex day! I needed an oil change and tire rotation for my car, so I made an appointment to get them done this morning. What should’ve been a simple oil change turned into a full-on repair because the shaft connecting the tire to the car (can’t remember what it’s called) on my front, passenger-side door was broken. Not fun. The manager at the shop I was at was very nice though, and explained everything to me (I ask a lot of questions), so ultimately it could’ve been much worse. It’s just not fun spending 10x what you thought you were going to… Luckily, since it’s a repair they have to do a lot, they had all the parts, so I was able to get it fixed the same day. Later that afternoon, Spencer arrived for the weekend and we went out to dinner (his treat after my costly morning). Then we watched “Dead Poets Society”–can you believe I hadn’t seen this movie until now?!
Saturday: I had to attend a Poverty Simulation at Loyola today as part of my requirement for the internship (though I would’ve been happy to attend regardless), so Spencer had to fend for himself for a few hours while I was on campus. It was a really interesting event: we were all given name tags with the age and name of our new persona. I was a 1 year old living with my 20 year old mom, 40 year old grandpa, and 9 year old uncle. My mom and grandpa had to figure out how they were going to feed all of us, pay the utilities and mortgage, and keep my uncle in school while both working (and my mom was attending college as well). Since I was supposed to be a 1 year old, I wasn’t allowed to contribute any suggestions which was strange because I pretty much just had to do what they said. It gave me much greater insight into the challenges low-income families face: my uncle and I ended up being taken into police custody because we were left home alone–our family needed the money, so both adults were at work. It was challenging to get everything accomplished, and the services available to help us were confusing and often conflicted with the hours the adults had to be at work. This was a very eye-opening experience that I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to participate in. After the simulation, I met back up with Spencer and we spent the afternoon working on our various projects. We went over to my cousin’s house in the evening to “watch” her and her husband’s almost 2-year old (he was asleep).
Sunday: Following our normal pattern today was pretty much a get-everything-organized-for-the-week day. Spencer and I went out for a (late) breakfast at Billy’s Pancake House–he had their French toast and I had their Nutella crepes with strawberries and bananas (plus a hot chocolate). It was all so tasty–I’ll definitely be stopping there again for more yummy breakfast food before my internship is over!
Next week, I’ll be at the private practice again and spending a lot more time on my end-of-semester projects. Until then!
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