Week 2: Orientation

Presbyterian Hospital Dallas Dietetic Interns: 2010-2011
Back row (from left): Anna Turner, Rachel VanderGalien, Alyssa Ashmore, ME

Front row (from left): Megan Long, Jennifer Wright, Amberlee Coles, Kristin Poda

Monday started out with my buttons popping off of the pants I was going to wear for the day. We talked about Labor Laws, hiring, and management. Then we went to the library for a tour. Every major medical and health journal and book is in the library. Along with those, as interns, we have access to online journals and search engines. Only physicians and dietetic interns have 24/7 access to the library. We are special. The librarian stated that we will be spending a lot of our spare time in there researching and working on projects. After that we went to the kitchen and each of us made a test tray. All eight of us received a different diet, for example: Regular, Diabetic, Renal, Full liquid, Clear liquid, Pureed, Bland, and Cardiac. I got the clear liquid tray consisting of cranberry juice, iced tea, red jello, orange ice, and beef broth. Other interns got fun/yummy food like chicken Parmesan, salmon, and pureed pork and corn. We all assembled our trays as if it were going to be delivered to a patient in the hospital then took the temperature of every food on our tray and sampled all of the foods. The pureed pork was not tasty! But everything else was delicious, including the pureed corn. When that was done we got a real lunch then had a class on Bariatric surgery and Care Connect training. Care Connect is the online charting system that is used at the hospital.

Tuesday we had CBORD training for 2.5 hours. CBORD is the computer system that manages basically every task that has to be done in food service at Presby Hospital. It helps reduce costs and increases efficiency in the nutrition department. Presby serves about 1.8 million meals annually. CBORD is used for menu planning, nutritional analysis, production management and distribution, payroll deduction, purchasing, and inventory control. In January, Presby will be adding the room service feature of CBORD, which is what I worked with at Saint Clare's Hospital in Wisconsin. For the rest of the day we had two classes: Cardiology and Nutrition Care Process. That evening I attended the Dallas Dietetic Association (DDA) Meeting at BJ's Brewhouse in Arlington. I signed up for some volunteer opportunities and ate free appetizers. =)

All day Wednesday we had Focus Training. It was a workshop by FranklinCovey Company. We all received an awesome FranklinCovey planner kit. This was very beneficial as I will soon be a very busy girl. In the workshop we got motivated to plan tasks weekly and daily and set achievable goals. In other words, all the ways to avoid procrastination. Yay.

Thursday we had a bunch of classes in the morning: Oncology, Nutrition Care Process, and Diabetes. After lunch we took a field trip to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children near downtown Dallas. It is one of the nation's leading pediatric centers for treatment of orthopedic conditions, neurological disorders, and learning disorders. I was amazed by the fact that there is NO CHARGE to patient families for treatment at the hospital, and admission is open to Texas children from birth to 18 years. We had a two hour orientation about some diseases and disorders that are treated there so we are ready when we have rotations there. It was definitely an eye-opening experience and I can't wait till I get to do my two week long rotation there! It is a very cute and amazing hospital, everything is kid-friendly. I loved the crayon garbage cans.

Friday morning we had more classes: Prenatal nutrition, in-house diets, Nutrition Care Process, Gastroenterology/Surgery, and Service Excellence. After lunch we learned about Culinary Basics in the kitchen. We learned about knives, chef uniform, slicing and dicing, cooking methods, proper tasting, and proper sanitation. I learned a more efficient way to slice and dice an onion-very cool! After the demonstration we were all given pagers and we got our first rotation assignments. I will start out in conference services on Monday!

Saturday I made chocolate chip cookies and got a dresser and night stand delivered from my cousin Paul and his friend, Brian. They came at the perfect time because the cookies were still warm. I sent some with them so I don't have to eat them all myself. After that I went to check out the pool party at the Village Country Club. When I got back I made some chocolate chip banana bread and muffins that didn't turn out. Baking soda is important!! Without it you get flat, dense, chewy bread. At least it still tastes good.

Week 1: Orientation

I am not so sure why I was so excited to start on Monday. I had to be to the hospital at 7:45 AM for New Employee Orientation. I spent two days in a classroom with about 50 other new hires learning about the hospital...it was hard to stay awake for most of it. We were welcomed by the Hospital President, Britt Berrett, who is a very funny and inspiring guy. When we went around introducing each other he mocked me when I said I was from Wisconsin. It was exciting to finally meet all the other dietetic interns and the internship director, Kristi.

On Tuesday I received my meal card. Each month $140 is loaded onto the card for me to use at the hospital cafeterias. This could be dangerous. There are a lot of good looking desserts. It is very nice that all milk, juice, pop, and water are free for staff in Nutrition Services. I didn't have to eat supper for the rest of the week because I ate so much at lunch.

Wednesday was the first day that it was just the interns together. Kristi gave us a tour of the huge kitchen, cafeterias, dietitian's offices, and other places that we will have to go to throughout the year. In the afternoon we took a pre-test. It was difficult. I realized how much I don't remember. I did pass, however, with a 76%. My goal is to get 100% when I'm done with the internship. We went over all of the policies and procedures of the internship. I got a little overwhelmed at this point because Kristi was talking about all the homework that has to be done. She compared this internship to working full-time and going to school full-time and to make sure to get enough sleep and exercise. We were assigned to read a very long article about the Nutrition Care Process and complete a bunch of computer based training modules.

On Thursday, one of the dietitians came in to give us a refresher lesson on protein and calorie assessment. Once again, this is a topic that I seemed to breeze through in school, but when we were given a worksheet of case studies I found myself struggling to get answers. I need practice! We attended a Toastmasters meeting before lunch. Toastmasters has clubs world-wide that helps its members improve on their communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. We just went there to observe, but eventually each intern is required to give a 2-3 minute introductory speech as well as a 5-7 minute speech on a different topic. In the afternoon we learned the results from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test.
My results were:

• Warm, sympathetic, and helpful
• Personable, cooperative, and tactful
• Conscientious and loyal; value security, stability, and tradition
• Focused on the present; make decisions based on experience and facts
• Uncomfortable with conflict; work hard to make sure it doesn't occur
• Focused on the needs of others; often uncomfortable with impersonal analysis
• Usually seen by others as sociable, enthusiastic, energetic, organized, and traditional

Yup, that's me.

On Friday, we took a quiz on the article from Wednesday then had several lessons from dietitians. We learned about nutrition during wound care, tube feeding, and Neonatal nutrition (NICU). The fun part of the day was when we got to taste test supplements. We tried about 15 supplements that are given to patients with specific needs such as high calorie/high protein, Diabetic, Renal, nectar thick or honey thick liquids. Some were pretty tasty, but most were not so tasty. A few of them tasted like a Popsicle stick with chalk on it.

To end the week, a couple interns and I got together to watch a movie. We watched Steel Magnolias and ate heart shaped cookies.

Dallas Farmers Market and Dallas Arboretum

On Monday I took a trip downtown to the Dallas Farmers Market. I got a whole meal out of it. All of the vendors were very generous. They offered samples of watermelon, peaches, tomatoes, mangoes, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and much more.I bought some peaches, green beans, new red potatoes, corn, a mango, and a cactus pear. The corn was not good, Wisconsin's is way better! The mango, beans, and peaches are delicious! I'm not so sure about the cactus pear. It was very sweet and had a stringy texture.

I spent the afternoon walking around 66 acres of Botanical Gardens known as the Dallas Arboretum. It contains many series of gardens and fountains along the shores of White Rock Lake with an opening to view the Dallas skyline. 44 acres of the grounds used to be the estate of Everette Lee DeGolyer and his wife, Nell, who lived in a 21,000 square foot Spanish-style home. DeGolyer is known as "the founder of applied geophysics in the petroleum industry." They were millionaires. Their retirement home was built in 1939 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a very cool tour!

A weekend in Austin

This past weekend, I drove about three hours south of Dallas to Austin, Texas to visit my friend, Kristin. She went to school in Madison and wants to be a Veterinarian. It is complete coincidence that we are both in Texas. She got a summer job on a deer ranch outside of Austin where she feeds baby deer throughout the day.

I arrived in Austin at 11:30 on Saturday. The first thing we did was get some lunch on Sixth Street. I had an eggplant sandwich that was dripping with grease and mayo, Kristin had a huge 1/2 pound burger, and Kristin's friend, David, had a chicken sandwich. After our fattening lunch, we went to sweat it out by walking around Austin in 98 degree weather. Our first stop was the state capital building. It was a nice break with air conditioning.

Next, we walked around the University of Texas (Texas Longhorns) campus and football stadium. It currently holds the largest enrollment of all colleges in the state of Texas and is fifth largest in the United States, with 51,000 undergraduate and graduate students. (The University of Wisconsin has about 42,000 students).

After our walk around town we went to The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a cool movie theater that serves dinner and drinks while you watch the movie. We saw Dinner for Schmucks. It was a nice break from the hot sun and very funny! We all got a milkshake and shared some popcorn.

We went back to the hotel to get ready for the bat colony and for the night out. Every night crowds gather on and around Congress Avenue bridge in Austin to watch 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats (the world's largest urban bat colony) emerge from the bridge at dusk to go out mosquito hunting for the night. Unfortunately, it must have been a weird night for the bats because it was too dark to see the huge swarm of them. We were right above the bats on the bridge and could see them swooping out for bugs and hear them squeaking-kinda freaky! (The bat picture is one I found on the internet-what it is suppose to look like-very cool!) There is a picture of us waiting to see the bats on the bridge, the crowd of people waiting on the lawn, and the city of Austin).

After all that waiting for the bats we were pretty thirsty so we walked to Sixth Street where the street is lined with bars, restaurants, and night clubs. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights the street is blocked off from traffic to allow pedestrians to walk across the street from bar to bar. Austin is known as The Live Music Capital of the World. Many of the bars have live bands for entertainment, however, on Saturday there were more DJs. On the picture to the left we are sitting on a Jackelope at The Jackelope bar. Sometime during the evening Kristin and I swapped boots.

Although it only took me three hours to get to Austin, it took a little over five hours to get back to Dallas. Either everyone was traveling from weekend getaways like me or they were going to football partys for the Dallas Cowboys' first game. Lesson learned...stay of Texas roads on Sundays! People are crazy. They drive through the grass to get to side roads!

The BIG Move

On Thursday July 22nd Dad, Mom, Sara, and I left Wausau, Wisconsin before six in the morning with two vehicles packed to the max. It was very rainy until we got half way through Iowa then it was sunny for the rest of the drive. We stopped at Red Lobster in Joplin, Mississippi for dinner then drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma to stay the night.

We left a little before eight Friday morning and crossed the Texas border by eleven. The GPS took us to where my apartment was supposed to be, however all of the 500 apartments looked identical and we had to find the office so I could sign my lease and get the keys. By 1:30 I was opening the door of my new home for the next year. There was lots to do: internet dude was coming, had to go buy a mattress, needed some food to eat, organizing, and celebrate with cheesecake and WISCONSIN beer, of coarse! (and Dad's Wisconsin farmer's tan).

Saturday, we drove around Dallas and Las Colinas going to garage sales and checking out Craigs list adds looking for a kitchen table. We found one and strapped it on the Envoy. We also drove by Grandpa Schwede's old house in Coppell and knocked on his old neighbor's door.

Sunday, we ventured into downtown Dallas where Sara and I made a big Texas purchase: a pair of cowboy boots. The salesman tried talking Dad into buying a pair too. I think he'll be back for them.

Monday, we went to the Historical District in downtown Dallas to visit The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza and learned a lot about the life, death, and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. Later that evening we met up with Cousins Paul, Michelle, and Elyssa in Frisco and had dinner at Babe's Chicken. Afterwards Paul gave us a quick tour of Frisco. We stopped at IKEA and did some shopping then went on the Shawnee Trail to see the bronze sculptures of longhorns and cowboys.

Tuesday Sara got me a beta fish for a house-warming gift. She picked out the name, Lloyd. Sara is also the 'Godmother' of Lloyd. I'm not sure if she knows that he expects presents on every holiday. We'll see if she plays up to her role. While Sara and I were out exploring the HUGE Northpark Mall in Dallas and realizing that the air-conditioning in my car was broken, Mom and Dad were secretly setting up a new TV in my living room =) As a thank you to Dad, Mom, and Sara for hauling all my crap to Texas, I took them out for dinner at Suze Restaurant. It is one of the places I will be interning at. I get to work with world-renowned chefs and learn how to pair wine with food. The presentation and mix of flavors of all of our meals was AMAZING! And Chef Garza came out to talk with us then sent out two very yummy desserts! After dinner, Paul and Michelle, who were also dining at Suze Restaurant came to see my apartment. Later, Dad, Mom, Sara, and I walked around my apartment complext to check out the pools and The Village Country Club.

Wednesday, Dad took my car in to get it checked out. Turns out some pipe was leaking because road salt ate away at it. Since it is unbearable to go without A/C in Texas, I had to get it fixed. At least I shouldn't have to deal with road salt for the next year. My moving crew were on their way back to Wisconsin before noon and made it back before five on Thursday. It was sad to see them all leave and very weird that I won't see them till Christmas.