05 April 2012
life update
I needed a glass of wine when I got home today. After going at life for two full days, with only a short break for sleep in between, I was wiped. I've got to adjust quickly to the fast pace, though, because this is going to be the rhythm of my weeks for the foreseeable future.
I started two new science courses this week: Organic Chemistry and Human Anatomy & Physiology. The former is online through University of New England College of Osteopathic Medical Distance Learning, and the latter is in-person in Westwood through UCLA Extension. They are both going to be challenging, but also really interesting. OChem is a semester (16 weeks) and A&P is a quarter (12 weeks). Oh yeah, and three weeks from now I'm throwing into the mix a condensed version of Spanish 2 at Pasadena City College (Pass/Fail). Instead of a 16-week class, its 8 weeks, but goes twice as fast and has terrible meeting times (Friday evening and ALL DAY Saturday). It was the only open class when I registered in January with my crappy new student registration time, and I keep telling myself "it's only 8 weeks" and then I can hopefully get into a more rational class schedule for Spanish 3+. I want to work on my Spanish to the point where I am near fluent, because it will be such a great skill to have when I'm in my Dietetic Internship rotations, and later when I'm working as a Dietitian somewhere. The result of five years of Spanish from grades 7-11 is a creaky, dusty knowledge of basic grammar, but the good news is it comes back quickly with review. My plan is to take a Spanish course every semester until I start grad school next August. By then I'll be in the upper-div Spanish Conversation courses - I can't wait! A foreign language must use a different part of the brain than hard sciences, because the time I've spent reviewing the first half of my textbook (so I don't flounder miserably the first day of class) has been a welcome break from my hardcore science courses. In the summer, I'll move on to studying for the GRE, as well as Introduction to Physiology, and then in fall I'll take Biochemistry and Introduction to Nutrition. Phew!
Along with an avalanche of homework and studying, I've been working hard on getting a few regular volunteer experiences related to Nutrition. To be a competitive applicant for a coordinated Masters program in Nutrition (meaning it has both the graduate coursework in Nutrition, the undergraduate Dietetic coursework to become a Registered Dietitian [RD], AND the 1200 hours of "supervised practice" - aka internship) you need to show that you've had a variety of experiences working in areas of nutrition - these include clinical, community/public health, and food service. Since I work at a pediatric therapy clinic (outpatient) that has a strong dysphagia program, I'm lucky to be able to shadow our three RDs with their Feeding and Nutrition clients. This includes sessions in the clinic, a few home visits, and I hope to add some school/Medical Therapy Unit visits too. This is almost unheard of for people not in a graduate program due to patient confidentiality and liability issues. Because I'm an employee with over a year of work experience there, and a good relationship with the chief RD (she is one of the main speakers at the workshops I coordinate), it's been possible for me to set up semi-regular observation sessions. So these are "clinical". I'm able to observe the session and afterwards ask questions about the client, diagnosis, the particular treatment strategies, etc.
To address the community nutrition aspect, I have been volunteering once a week in the kitchen at a Center for homeless women in downtown LA. I primarily prep food for the next day's meals and serve meals to the ladies. They just hired a Kitchen Coordinator (sorely needed) who has brought some order to the place, and with whom I clicked immediately. She seems to get my interest and direction in nutrition and I hope to become a dependable volunteer in the kitchen, learn the ins and outs of providing nutrition to an underserved community of women. I think this is also considered "food service" in that it is under the umbrella of providing meals for a large quantity of people (and understanding what goes into that) but I see it as more community nutrition in that its involved in a public health setting, versus a campus cafeteria.
The other experience I just finished coordinating is working in a hospital Nutrition Department. After a month-long bureaucratic process to become a volunteer, this morning I had my orientation with the department and the work I'll be doing. I went around the floors with a lovely volunteer named Lori and picked up menus for tomorrow's meals from all patients who are able to consume food orally (versus those with a medical issue that prevents oral feeding and requires a gastrointestinal tube, for example). It was a fascinating experience to interact with patients one-on-one and get a glimpse of life in a hospital. I even used my rusty Spanish to attempt to communicate with two Spanish-speaking-only patients. I'm not sure I truly got across the message to one of them, but the exercise sure got my brain working fast! The hospital is in Glendale, the city just west of Pasadena, and its largely Armenian, so speaking Armenian (as Lori does) is a huge asset. She ended up conversing in Armenian a lot. I hope this won't hinder my experience too much. Volunteering at the hospital falls under clinical, I guess, since it involves direct patient contact. I'll do a clinical rotation in my internship at a hospital, so this is a good familiarization. Also, the Chief RD hinted that with time, I may be able to gain more responsibility and shadow their RDs. Let's hope!
Getting nutrition education experience is pretty hard without having any credentials. Aside from my (now part-time) job coordinating workshops for professionals and parents on topics in child development, nutrition and feeding challenges (the parent workshops are truly "community nutrition"; the professional workshops are continuing education), the best I can do is help out with a new program through my work that is providing contracted nutrition education to a group of post-foster care young adults (18-22 years old) who live in apartments within a supportive facility (owned by a non-profit mental health organization in Pasadena). It's only one evening a month - involving cooking a meal together and discussing how to prepare cheap, healthy meals - and I can't make the next few months due to my A&P class, but its a great experience. An RD leads, and I assist and learn. I went to the first session in February (we made turkey tacos in the kitchen of two residents) and hope/plan to continue attending from June/July onwards.
So I'm volunteering at the homeless women's center 4 hours a week, shadow the RDs at work for 3 hours a week (on occasion), and start next week at the hospital 4 hours a week. Throw in 3 hours of A&P class a week, 9 hours of weekly studying per class (2 now, 3 soon), 20 hours of work at my job, plus some commuting time, and my life is looking completely wild! I can't complain, though - this is all my doing and I'm honestly really happy. Yeah, I'm crazy busy, but I want this. This year is SO eye-opening, I'm learning so much, being open-minded is opening a lot of doors and will hopefully assist me in getting into a great graduate program.
The most significant downside to my new crazy busy life is not the fact that my apartment is never clean or that I don't sleep enough, but the fact that Kevin and I don't have much time together these days. Since I moved to Pasadena six months ago, we see each other on the weekends only, and while I keep all my work and volunteering hours to Mon-Fri, I have scads of homework and studying which is largely relegated to the weekend. Since I am the only one with a car and there is no train line between Claremont and Pasadena, I am the one who brings us together on Fridays and drives home to Pasadena alone on Sundays. With traffic patterns working against us, we often don't reunite until 9pm Friday. This is also the first time in our 3-year relationship that I have been doing serious schoolwork. He's never known me as a true student! (The last month of senior year of college hardly counts). I miss him, but he is busy too, and we work on homework together on Saturdays. Man, we are truly living it up in our twenties! This summer he will be in the Bay Area at an amazing internship, so we won't have to deal with the weekly challenge of finding time for "us" because we'll be too far apart for anything other than planned get-togethers. That's pretty much the only thing that will be nice about being super-long-distance this summer.
I don't think I've actually addressed my future plans on this blog at all, only alluded to them. I'm applying this fall (so, like, only 6-8 months from now!) for Masters in Nutrition programs that include the "Didactic Program in Dietetics" (DPD) coursework necessary to become an RD. Some programs include the internship as well (another requirement to become an RD) and some don't. Getting into an internship after completing the coursework is the standard method for RDs-to-be, but its not easy. There has been a 50% placement rate for the last few years due to a shortage in internships and a surplus in wannabe RDs. Having the internship part-and-parcel with my DPD and graduate coursework is definitely preferable. There are only a handful of graduate-level programs that are Coordinated and even fewer that are non-Coordinated. (The majority of RDs have Bachelors degrees only). I made a beautiful nerdy chart the other day of the available programs and their stats, and then made a subchart for the ones I'm interested in. My A-list includes UNC Chapel Hill, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, and University of Washington (all Master of Public Health in Nutrition degrees), and my B-list includes Colorado State University Fort Collins, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Utah, University of Vermont, and San Jose State University (almost all Master of Science in Nutrition). To get into these programs you need to either have a science/nutrition undergrad degree, or have taken a decent amount of science courses (General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy & Physiology, and Intro to Nutrition, plus Statistics is very helpful. They also generally require a few English/Psych/Anthro/Socio courses, which I've more than covered with my undergrad degree). Applications are due by January, decisions are mailed out between February and April, and the programs begin in August/September. They are usually 28 months, and its by far most efficient to do a Coordinated program where the internship hours are included - otherwise its another 8 months after graduate school to complete the internship before being able to take the national licensing exam.
And what do I want to do when I'm an RD (God willing)? I'm not sure yet, but at this early stage I know I'm interested in clinical nutrition, especially in pediatrics (basically what the RDs at my work do), and also with eating disorders. I want to see how I feel in a clinical area, working one-on-one with clients doing counseling of some sort. I want to learn more about community nutrition opportunities in underserved populations such as WIC (a federal nutrition support program for low-income Women, Infants and Children, with which I inquired about volunteering but failed to get anywhere). I'm interested generally in women's nutrition and health. I am also grossly fascinated with (and disturbed by) the policy aspect of food and nutrition, which affects the entirety of the nutrition profession (e.g. the USDA Recommended Daily Allowance for calories, macronutrients and micronutrients profoundly affect the menus at hospitals and soup kitchens, for example, and who determines and lobbies for specific USDA RDAs?). Of course, I'm interested in "alternative" nutrition approaches like Weston A. Price and the ancestral nutrition movement (Paleo/Primal). I'm deeply concerned about the way food is grown, produced, and processed in this country, particularly animal products. (Having been vegetarian and vegan continues to affect me to this day). I believe there are ethical ways to produce meat, but I'm concerned with its cost and inaccessibility. I'm troubled by food deserts. I'm enraged with poor nutrition standards in public schools. I'm disgusted with the capitalistic and corporate influence of food companies in Washington. I support farmers market, community supported agriculture programs, community gardens, backyard and container gardens on patios and roofs, voting with our forks, learning how to cook real food, connecting with our food, understanding its intrinsic healing power and its ability to connect us to our family, our community and our fellow human beings.
While I have strong opinions about food issues, I don't see myself as an active advocate in the political realm. My philosophy so far in life has been that personal change on a small scale is more rewarding and inspiring than attempting to change a gigantic system. I'm also more interested in helping people improve their health and wellbeing through nutrition, and not waving my food issue flags on a daily basis. That's why I'm interested in doing one-on-one counseling, whether its with the parents of a child with special needs, a patient with diabetes or a woman with anorexia. The politics/policy aspect is hugely important, but it's not the primary area of food and nutrition that I want to go into. But if I choose a program with an MPH degree, it will give me both sides - the RD coursework will lead me to be a clinician, and the MPH degree will provide a macroscopic lens to the topic of nutrition.
That's why I've decided upon this path. I don't know where it will take me, but each crazy busy day I spend taking a step on the path makes me more and more confident that its the right one for me.