Experienced the New Experiences

Another week of workload consolidation has passed. Currently i m managing 22 patients (though only 17 require ongoing intervention). With this amount of patients in my hands, everyday I really got to plan the day out. But sometimes things can go haywired...

Today I received a verbal "referral" from the nurse that one of my patients has been eating very little at mealtimes (the patient has been lying to me..). This patient has a history of depression & now, with a current issue of recent amputation, his emotional status remains at the bottom of a pit. It was very difficult to emphasize this patient while knowing nutrition is important for his recovery. I didn't want to push him too hard & make him even more depressed, especially when his only request is to not make him to go to the dining room to eat. And, soon, from the nursing staff, we came out a conclusion that the patient's daughter was affecting the patient's mental status alot, as she comes in few times a week crying when she sees her father's missing leg. The nurse manager & I ended up having a mini-family meeting with the patient & his daughter, reinforcing the importance of nutrition, making it his duty to join the eating at mealtimes, reassuring the daughter & patient that the amputation is managable afterall. This is how things can get complex & ended up my job is not that easy. But what an unusual experience~

Anyway, another special experience happened today too. I did a talk to all the new nurses & nursing students. It was quite different from the usual nutrition group educations we do as a dietitian, because my topic was to explain what rehab dietitians do. I think that doing this talk is good for me because it gets me thinking what i actually am doing as a dietitian. Although materials & the outline of the talk were already prepared by my supervisor, i think it did get me thinking, planning for the talk. Oh, it went ok, just that i do feel i m quite unexperienced as what i said was pretty shallow, lack of details & i really should ve asked more questions to stir up the group. But well, it is an experience, something for me to build on in my career.

All the experiences i gather everyday are for learning to be a better dietitian as well as a better person. I think i do enjoy this job & would like to challenge myself to scale greater heights in this career! By next tuesday clinical placement will call an end. I m getting nearer the finishing line, going to enter the real world soon~~!