Salisbury VA first day with a Dietitian

I had my first day on the floor today, after 3 days of orientation. The dietitian I was with was wonderful. We spent the morning looking at the files of the patients that the dietetic technicians had classified as having moderate or severe malnutrition, and she began teaching me the nutrition specific components of the computer system.

Later we visited patients, and I was surprised by the brevity of the visits. The dietitian feels that it is more appropriate to educate patients when they are not inpatients in the hospital. She believes they will be more receptive to the information if they voluntarily return to see the outpatient dietitian.

We had one very interesting patient who requested all kinds of organic fruits and vegetables. The dietitian handled him wonderfully. She listened attentively for probably over 10 minutes while he made his requests and told us about his war wounds and marched in the hallway for us. (I am at the VA hospital in Salisbury).

I also got to attend several meetings in which the dietitian, physician, and social workers met to discuss patients. The meetings were much shorter and less formal than I had expected.

I was surprised by how much time was spent filling out forms and making sure diet requests were fulfilled, and how little time was actually spent with the patients. It was an eye-opening day.

Oh, one more note, I don’t know what the other hospitals are like, but the security here is pretty intense.

Sierra