Community Experiences and Projects
Hult Center for Healthy Living
&
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Experiences and Projects
HULT CENTER FOR HEALTHY LIVING - ILLINOIS CANCER CARE
Experiences: A blend of both community and clinical dietetics was performed at the Hult Center for Healthy Living. Most of the time, I traveled to the various Illinois Cancer Care location sites and provided patient services there. Daily services/tasks included nutrition assessments and follow-ups, nutrition counseling, charting, and providing coupons and free samples of nutrition supplements (e.g. Ensure, Glucerna, and so on) to patients. On a few occasions, I got to calculate tube feed recommendations and also worked with the preceptor to provide Creon recommendations to APNs for patients suffering from exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
Projects: The projects I did were for the community aspect for the Hult Center for Healthy Living. The project on motivations was provided to a breast cancer patient group, and the project on hormone therapy was for my preceptor to use at an HIV clinic.
WIC
Experiences: At WIC, I was able to shadow various staff members and learn about their roles, which was a beneficial experience in that it helped me understand how all parts of WIC fit together as a whole, and how important communication was in order to provide quality services to clients. I attended meetings, learned how to take anthropometrics, provided nutrition counseling, referred a client to a lactation consultant when necessary, and did charting on the clients.
Projects: I was able to do a lunch & learn presentation on carbohydrates and provided different dishes that were primarily rich in either fiber, sugars, or starches. I also created a flyer to promote the event. My other project consisted of providing educational materials on nutrition and food safety, with an additional focus on encouraging participation in WIC's farmers' market program to offer affordable fresh produce.