Craven Week 2

Today I ventured for the first time into the kitchen at Craven. First, we went for a department meeting, where one of the dietitians was recognized for 5 years of service. One employee also got recognition for becoming ServSafe certified and another got an award from Sodexo for being a caring employee: during the last ice storm they had he drove out his SUV and picked up everyone for work so they could come in. The food service manager and the clinical nutrition manager seem to have pretty good rapport with the food service workers, as do the dietitians, although the dietitians seem to spend very little time in the kitchen. My second trip to the kitchen was to check up on a gluten free menu for a patient, to make sure they were putting the right things on her tray. They do not get very many celiac patients at Craven and when they do the trays often have inappropriate dietary items on them. I went to talk to the hospitality assistant (kind of like the hostess at UNC, also, Craven is switching to room service next week) and she had marked pasta to go on the patient's tray. I tried to explain that the pasta they used was also made from wheat but she didn't appear to believe me since the list they get says to avoid wheat and she thought that was only bread and gravies. Another employee insisted that pasta was made from corn. But eventually the clinical nutrition manager came in and said pasta was inappropriate and we made up the lady's tray and I took it to her. Unfortunately when I got there I was told the patient was actively dying so her daughter said she would probably be eating the tray. It was sad.

On the clinical dietetics side of things, I've been working beside the dietitians to help with their patient loads. They see upwards of 20 patients a day, it is so fast and busy. I have only seen 3 educations however, and none of them were taken well by the patients, none of them seemed interested at all. I myself have done about 10 breastfeeding educations though, which I have enjoyed and feel very comfortable doing now. I am still nervous about other educations since I haven't gotten the opportunity to do them but I hope as I do more I will become comfortable with them as well. Hope everyone has a great week!