My dietetic internship is officially over! These last 6 weeks, and the whole internship in general, went by so quickly. It feels like just yesterday was match day and now all of a sudden my internship is over! My internship officially ended on Friday, and I moved back to Minnesota on Sunday. I’ll be studying for the RD Exam for the next month or so before making my attempt at becoming a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN). While I’m studying, I’ll continue to post weekly life updates and other posts about my internship experience. To catch up with my previous food service/long-term care experience, check out:
DI: Week 32 – Starting Food Service
DI: Week 33 – Food Service and Long-term Care
DI: Week 34 – Halfway Through Food Service and Long-term Care
DI: Week 35 – Week 4 of Food Service/Long-term Care
DI: Week 36 – One Week Left + Minnesota Wedding Weekend
The last week of my dietetic internship looked like this:
Monday:
We continued our supervision of meal service. The annual surveyors haven’t come yet, so we’re still planning and preparing for their arrival. I was hoping they’d be here before we left so we could observe and get a better idea of what they do and look for, but it’s looking like they won’t be here until July. We also continued working on our last couple learning activity assignments that we haven’t finished yet. For the most part, however, we’re in good shape to finish everything on time. We just have a few finishing touches to put on our last couple assignments.
After supervised practice we had to meet our dietetic internship director to complete some of our exit paperwork. This was a little overwhelming because she had to tell us all about how to take the exam, maintain our registration and licensure, and complete continuing education. Some of these things (like the continuing ed) aren’t things we need to be worried about right now since we aren’t registered yet. However, she told us about them because we won’t have another opportunity to meet and discuss this since our internship is ending this week. It was nice to get all this information, but definitely a lot to take in all at once!
We had our last night class tonight too where we presented our final presentations of what we accomplished at our supervised practice site. Katie and I presented on the process to plan our 4th of July special event. It was cool to see what the other interns have been working on this semester.
Tuesday:
We put the finishing touches on our special event planning and ordered the food for the 4th of July meal. It was our last day working with the intern from Dominican University since she only works Mondays and Tuesdays. We had such a great time working together this semester. Having the opportunity to work with and learn from other dietetic interns has been really great. We spent some time working on our last assignment for the semester. We have to analyze the existing layout of the kitchen and serving areas and make recommendations to improve efficiency. We’re focusing primarily on the serving process on the floors since our kitchen is pretty small and laid out as efficiently as it can be.
Wednesday:
We had a bumpy start to our day… We’ve been working in the employee break room since it actually gets wifi signal. This has been working just fine the whole time we’ve been here until today… I guess one of the employees was upset that we were using the break room when we aren’t actually “employees”. Rather than telling us herself, however, she had another employee (who we have a good relationship with) tell us to work somewhere else. Needless to say, we spent our morning awkwardly trying to find another place to work that gets wifi signal. Our facility has very spotty wifi, so this is no easy task. This semester is the first one where we’ve had other employees at our site who aren’t happy we’re around. All the kitchen and dietary staff at our site love having us here, but some of the non-nutrition staff apparently have issues with us being around. It’s uncomfortable and frustrating, but unfortunately that’s just the way things are. It’s a little weird being an intern at all these sites since we’re technically Loyola’s interns, just working temporarily in different places. We work as employees in many cases, but aren’t actually employees. It’s an odd situation, but hasn’t been an issue until now. It just sucks that we had to spend so much time today finding a new place to work when we’re only at this site for another couple days. :P
Thursday:
Second to last day! We finished all of our competencies and assignments yesterday, so we helped our preceptor complete some more nutrition assessments today. I did an annual assessment and an initial assessment. We’ve been hanging out in the activity room to do our work since our banishment from the employee break room yesterday. :P It’s been fun to spend more time with the residents though, and sit in on their activities. After supervised practice a lot of us Loyola interns met up for dinner and drinks. For some of us, it’ll be the last time we see each other for an indefinite amount of time. It was a lot of fun as a last hurrah–especially since we don’t have any kind of ceremony or other gathering to finish off our semester. We don’t actually graduate, so there isn’t really a big closure moment for our internship program. I’m definitely going to miss all my fellow Loyola interns!
Friday:
We got our evaluations back from our preceptor, finished a couple nutrition assessments, and were able to go home early. It didn’t feel real though, walking out the doors for the last time, that it was really over. Not only is it the end of my food service/long-term care rotation, but the end of my dietetic internship! I think it’ll take a little while before it really sinks in.
Weekend:
I went to my cousin’s baby shower on Saturday with my mom which was really fun. My parents came to Illinois to help move me out as well. I’m moving back to Minnesota with them for a while to study for the registration exam. Unfortunately, becoming a dietitian is kind of a big waiting game. I won’t even be able to register for the exam for at least 3 weeks. Depending on how busy the testing site is, I might not even be able to take the exam for a few weeks once I’m able to register. Then, once I take the exam I’ll need to apply for licensure and finally be able to find a job. I feel very fortunate that I have a supportive family willing to help me out in the interim! I’ll keep you posted on my post-dietetic internship progress towards becoming a dietitian. :)
Next week I’ll be doing a lot of unpacking and reorganizing. I’ll continue to post weekly life updates and other miscellaneous things until I finally become a dietitian. Until next week!