The past month has been QUITE the busy one. For the first time, I started thinking about myself/ work life balance by turning down a shift so I could make time to breathe/relax by going away for a few days with my partner on a short road trip! I’m SO glad I did since the 3 day trip allowed me to come back to work refreshed and ready to conquer the clinical nutrition world all over again! That being said, the work-o-holic in me couldn’t let down the fact I rejected a day of work..

I’ve been learning a LOT the past month, taking advantage of every learning opportunity that comes my way by asking LOTS of questions (SS and TP know this about me..) and going into new patient assessments trying to take away as much as I can! You’d think the learning curves would slow down after internship, but it seems to have picked up even more since I’ve started working! A lot of my shifts have been either helping other RDs with workload, covering surgery/neuro, and a random general medicine coverage here and there (I’ve realize that I’ve become so specialized in certain wards ALREADY that I felt so out of my comfort zone in general medicine..)

Successes:

• FINALLY being able to practice parenteral nutrition (PN) on my own! I’ve worked EXTREMELY hard completing the policy and competency requirements to practice this form of nutrition – the health authority I work for requires dietitians to go through a pretty extensive process before being able to practice PN on their own. THANK YOU TP for proving a LOT of support during this 2.5 month process and signing it off for me! I still continue to ask questions when completing PN assessments or recommending PN changes but I’m slowlyyyy becoming more confident in my skills/abilities!

Things that make me nervous:

• Training in pediatrics. I’ve put this on my managers radar since I got hired but didn’t think I’d actually have an opportunity to formally be trained in this area. I can say I’m EXTREMELY nervous but excited! I enjoyed my one week pediatric rotation during my internship but know it’ll be QUITE the different experience actually working in it! Pediatrics is so extremely different than working with adults – their nutritional needs, methods for monitoring patients and just the way they “eat” in general is so different than adults! I can’t wait to start training tomorrow with the awesome RD training me, who’s covered both pediatrics/NICU!

I have a decent number of shifts coming my way the next couple weeks and with a lot of movement of casuals to other sites, I have a feeling I may be kept just as busy as the fall season continues. Things to remember: ask questions when I’m unsure and take every shift/patient as a learning opportunity!