On of the many wonderful events at this year’s annual meeting was the RDN Panel hosted by UAND students. University of Utah student Mary Jefferson wrote the following review of the event:<\/p>\n
As one of the student representatives for the Utah Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, this was my second year attending a UAND annual meeting. \u00a0I am graduating as part of the University of Utah\u2019s Coordinated Master\u2019s Program this May and felt the conferences I had attended in the past lacked meaningful information catered specifically towards students. \u00a0Many (around 20-30%) of the conference attendees are students, so why were none of the breakout sessions catered towards topics of interest for this large group?<\/p>\n
I discussed my observations and concerns with my father, a local physician, following the 2014 conference. \u00a0He actually gave me the idea of having some sort of mentoring lunch with a dietitian in an area of interest to the student, similar to something he had experienced at a medical conference he had attended. \u00a0The idea evolved to include a variety of dietitians on a panel so we could get different perspectives from various professionals. \u00a0I was encouraged when I pitched the idea to my fellow student representatives and they also felt it would be valuable.<\/p>\n
The goal was to represent dietitians that would not be typically seen on a standard student rotation. \u00a0Four different dietitians were represented on the student panel: one working at the prison system, one working for the state regulatory committee for nursing homes, one working for an eating disorder clinic, and one working for a grocery store. \u00a0The experiences of these individuals were enlightening and exhibited the diversity of various dietetics jobs available in the state of Utah, which was encouraging for students graduating this spring with an assortment of interests.<\/p>\n
Stephanie has a Master\u2019s in nutrition from the University of Utah and has worked for 1 \u00bd years as the lone dietitian found throughout the prison systems. \u00a0She visits the various prisons throughout the state at least once a week and likes her jobs because it offers a mix of food service and clinical experience. \u00a0She also counsels inmates interested in dietary information, something she started since her employment since she felt it was needed. \u00a0Stephanie has learned the most about religious foods rules and regulations to ensure religious diets are acceptable for inmates. \u00a0She felt her food service rotation was the most helpful to prepare her for this position and has enjoyed being a part of some of AND\u2019s listserv groups to ask questions and network with other prison dietitians.<\/p>\n
Stephanie also has a Master\u2019s degree in nutrition and really enjoys working in foodservice and hearing \u201cnuggets of wisdom\u201d from the patients in the nursing homes. \u00a0Her job requires thick skin because she is often requesting changes in meal production in the facilities she inspects, which can be confrontational. \u00a0She and a team of 2-3 nurses inspect nursing homes throughout the state, and Stephanie enjoys seeing the smaller parts of Utah she would normally never go. \u00a0She has learned a lot of nursing information, from bed sores to linen transportation, by working so closely with her team. \u00a0\u00a0Desk work and site visits alternate weekly. \u00a0Stephanie was inspired by the annual Public Policy Workshop to enter the field of regulation. \u00a0She encouraged students to keep an open mind when applying for various jobs since any job you work at will provide a learning opportunity.<\/p>\n
Kierstin is working her first job at the Center for Change in Provo and has a sister that is also a dietitian. \u00a0Kierstin enjoys following her patients throughout their entire recovery process. \u00a0Another perk is that she goes out to lunch during work (usually 2-3 times a week) with her patients to help them have a better experience while eating out. \u00a0Some patients go shopping with her at the grocery store and help to cook a meal, again to have a more positive food experience. \u00a0Her job also requires tough skin when patients do not want to progress their diet. \u00a0Kierstin says the most rewarding experiences would be when a patient sends her a thank you card for helping them. \u00a0She stated that someone that is empathetic and can understand the fear and concern in these patients but could also be tough and help the patients heal would be a good fit for this job. \u00a0She works independently but also has the support of other dietitians and others medical professionals at her center. Kierstin suggested catering cover letters and resumes to the specific job you are applying.<\/p>\n
Kayla says her job is the best of everything fun in dietetics. \u00a0She enjoys teaching cooking classes, being represented on the media, giving grocery store tours, going to health conferences and expos, counseling customers, and selecting foods products to be \u201cdietitian\u2019s choice.\u201d \u00a0She couldn\u2019t give a rundown of a typical day since she does so many different things. \u00a0The most difficult thing is to be a \u201cjack of all trades\u201d and being able to keep up on all the new food trends, scientific literature, and all the various disease states. \u00a0Being personable and a good speaker would be helpful in this job. She works mostly at the Harmon\u2019s in Farmington at Station Park independently, but also coordinates with three other dietitians located at Harmon\u2019s throughout the valley. \u00a0Harmon\u2019s is the first grocery store in Utah to employ dietitians and this may become an expanding field for nutrition in the future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are so incredibly grateful for our panelists! \u00a0I know I learned so much and really appreciated their expert advice. \u00a0I hope we can continue doing this panel in the future! \u00a0Their diverse background and experiences gave a good mix of ideas to everyone that attended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On of the many wonderful events at this year’s annual meeting was the RDN Panel hosted by UAND students. University of Utah student Mary Jefferson wrote the following review of the event: As one of the student representatives for the Utah Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, this was my second year attending a UAND annual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annual-conference-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatrightutah.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}