Dietetic internships are crazy in and of themselves. Not only are you paying someone else money to work for them full-time, but you’re also graded on everything you do. Not to mention the fact that your rotations change, so you work in anywhere from three to a dozen different places in the course of a year. Basically, it’s a wild ride, and you’ll (probably) never have another experience quite like it ever again. But just how strange is it, you may ask? Well, have I got some stories for you! In no particular order, here are the most unexpected moments of my dietetic internship experience.
Are you sure you don’t have diabetes??
While talking to a newly diagnosed diabetic patient they adamantly insisted that they don’t have diabetes. At this point, their physician and diabetic educator had talked to them about this new diagnosis. They insisted though that the tests must be wrong because they had never received a diagnosis like this before. They were convinced that a visit with their primary care physician would reveal a false diagnosis. Rather than fight with them about whether or not they had diabetes, we talked about general healthy eating and who to see for further education just in case their primary care physician diagnosed them with diabetes too.
The stench of steatorrhea
For those who may not know, steatorrhea is a condition where there’s an abnormal amount of fat in someone’s feces. I knew about this condition, when it happens, why it happens, etc. What I didn’t get told about enough is how it smells. Now, throughout the course of a dietetic internship, you smell a lot of less-than-pleasant stuff. Steatorrhea, however, is particularly unpleasant to smell. Essentially, it smells like a decaying animal. If you’ve never had the pleasure of smelling a decaying animal, the next best comparison is rancid butter. The only reason why I’m telling you this is so that you’ll hopefully be a little more prepared when working with a patient experiencing steatorrhea. It definitely took me very off-guard the first time.
Handling dirty laundry
Now, this didn’t directly happen to me, but a fellow DI. While performing a nutrition assessment on a long-term care resident the resident asked the DI to put some dirty laundry in their hamper. In this setting it’s not a completely bizarre request by any means, but it’s definitely not something you expect to do as a dietetic intern.
I’m sorry, I don’t control the food!
If I got $1 for every time somebody yelled at me about the food served at my supervised practice site… It doesn’t matter which setting you’re in, or how much control you actually have over the food, people automatically assume you’re the food person because your title has the word “diet” in it and you’re the one talking to them about food. It happens so often, that by the end of your internship it doesn’t even phase you. I think the time that surprised me the most though was when someone specifically told me that the quality of my site’s food would be better if it was more like a fast food chain… Definitely not a place I’d personally praise for “quality”, but to each their own!
I don’t eat “x, y, z”, aren’t you proud of me?!
We all know that there’s a ton of misinformation about nutrition out there, there’s no denying it. What surprised me though, is just how many people would announce that they’re on the latest fad diet to you and expect you to give them a pat on the back. Up until you start your dietetic internship you spend a lot of time surrounded by other people studying nutrition. So, for the most part, you all know what’s up. It’s a little off-putting when you actually really start working with the general public and realize just how pervasive some of these fads are. Not to mention the breadth of misinformation that’s out there. You’ll think you’ve heard it all, but you’d be wrong. Learning how to keep a poker face and politely dispel nutrition myths are a must in this profession.
Regardless if it’s your first or last day as a dietetic intern, we deal with some crazy stuff. Stay tuned because part 2 of unexpected moments from my dietetic internship is coming next week!