Day 1-UNCH

We had a day-long orientation that started with a little breakfast reception and covered UNCH facilities, the diet office, the charting style (PGIE), the rotation schedule and dietitians. Angelo popped in to say hi but was busy “putting out fires”. (In fact, he was apparently supplying food to people who were mopping up a flood in some part of the hospital. Which was as odd as it sounds.)

After observing the diet office for half an hour, I was amazed that patients get more or less what they want. Order changes, room switches, and meal preferences come in from nurses, physicians, and host/hostesses as the meal tickets are being printed out. One person is dedicated to updating the tickets before the trays are made – including running out to the trayline to change items. The other person checks each ticket, stamping them with special notes like fluid restriction, plastic utensils, and double portions and writing in items that got added. In one case, she even knew that a little boy always liked an item that he never ordered, so she remembered to write it onto the ticket so it would get onto his tray!

The lesson I learned today: don’t fall for trick questions. The reason we never learned how to adjust body weight for a person who is 70% of IBW is.....because we don’t adjust for anyone less than 120% of IBW.

It was a good start, and I’m looking forward to seeing actual cardiology patients tomorrow.