Internship Update: 3 down, 1 to go!

For those of you who are interested, here is an internship update. I finished 15 weeks with Chandler Unified School District in December. I had such a great experience there, doing menu planning, recipe standardization, kitchen design, and teaching more nutrition lessons than I can count.

I guess they liked me too, because they offered me a job during the break I am currently in, waiting for my clinical rotation to start. I am working and getting paid (it has been a long time since I got a paycheck) and having so much fun. I love child nutrition!

I took a 2 week break from my job to complete my Long Term Care clinical rotation at the Beatitudes Campus in Phoenix. They have hundreds of independent senior living apartments, a large assisted living facility and a health care center with 3 floors of residents. There is a floor for rehabilitation and recovery (from surgery, a bad fall, etc), another floor with early memory support, and finally a floor with advanced memory support. I had an amazing time working with the residents on the memory support floors. It is humbling to serve those residents and make sure that they are eating so that they can have the best quality of life possible.

I learned so many things about caring for the elderly in this rotation. I enjoyed associating with them, even those residents who can't speak or carry on a conversation. I enjoyed seeing their smiles and them waving at me every day when I would come up to their floor. I loved serving them during meal times and helping them when needed. I was inspired by their positive attitudes, despite the daily struggles associated with Alzheimer's Disease and other memory-loss situations.  I loved offering support when residents were troubled or upset about something, usually related to their inability to understand what reality is. 

Those 2 weeks flew by and now I am back with Chandler Schools. I'm working in the different schools at lunch time, doing various projects, and now I'm trying to set up a system for recycling food waste in the district, with a company who takes food waste and turns it into fertilizer.

That's what I'll be doing until the end of March when my 11 week in-patient clinical rotation starts at a hospital just down the road. I am so close to being done! One more rotation to complete, the RD exam to pass and I will be Heather Boyle, RD.