INTERNSHIP SITES
UW Hospital
CRITICAL CARE
Worked in the Trauma and Life Support Intensive Care Unit providing nutrition support to critically ill patients; completed several assessments and reassessments daily; provided enteral and parenteral nutrition recommendations; attended daily rounds with the interdisciplinary team to coordinate excellent care.
Preceptor Feedback:
"Nice job looking through the unit each morning and summarizing what was going on with each patient, identifying who needed to be seen that day. Great job taking the initiative to identify patients you wanted to listen to in multidisciplinary rounds. TF and energy and protein requirement calculations were accurate. You demonstrated critical thinking skills when assessing patients/determining nutritional needs. Overall, great job!"
American Family Children's Hospital
PEDIATRICS
Spent three weeks at the American Family Children's Hospital providing nutrition care to pediatric patients; created tube feeding and formula recipes; conducted several nutrition assessments and reassessments daily; provided accurate and appropriate nutrition education and counseling to patients and families; attended multidisciplinary rounds; became involved in intensive care in the NICU and PICU units.
Preceptor feedback:
"Congrats on finishing your pediatrics rotation! I was happy to see improvement as the rotation progressed. Great at communication and time management skills!"
UW Hospital
MNT ACUTE: ONCOLOGY
Provided nutrition care to patients receiving oncology treatment; performed several assessments and reassessments daily; provided education on cancer-specific topics including symptom management and increasing protein-energy intake; routinely performed nutrition-focused physical exams to identify patients with malnutrition and directed interventions appropriately.
Preceptor feedback:
"Great job Rachel! I was impressed with your daily time management skills and ability to complete multiple
patient notes. Keep up your good work with identifying and readdressing malnutrition and considering it when
developing your nutrition interventions for patients in the context of their overall goals of care and treatment plans.
Again, superb job, your work ethic and flexibility will get you far."
UW-Hospital
MNT ACUTE: NEUROLOGY
Focused on providing nutrition interventions to patients with conditions such as epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke, Alzheimer's, and dementia. Created and adjusted tube feeding plans as appropriate; attended rounds with the multidisciplinary team; provided interventions and recommendations tailored to each patient's needs; performed assessments and reassessments on the general and neurocritical care units.
UW-Hospital
MNT SURGERY
Performed nutrition assessments, reassessments, and screens for patients recovering from surgeries including ostomy placement and takedown, bowel resection, fistula creation or repair, and other procedures; provided appropriate education materials, discussions, and demonstrations; followed ERAS protocol to promote enhanced recovery after surgery.
Preceptor feedback:
"Your understanding of what is important for a note and pulling tough, complicated [information] together was impressive. Keep up the good work!"
UW Hospital
MNT CHRONIC
Performed assessments, reassessments and nutrition screens for patients with a wide variety of chronic conditions including liver disease, renal failure, pancreatitis, IBS/IBD, cardiac disease, and diabetes; provided appropriate and timely education; conducted a journal article review of malnutrition diagnosis in adult and pediatric patients.
Preceptor feedback:
"Rachel proved to be a quick learner and readily took on challenges early on in the rotation, such as
patients on nutrition support (both EN and PN) or with pancreatic insufficiency. She consistently obtained good
information from patient interviews and independently managed the workload for a full unit (~20-25 patients daily)
for much of the rotation."
Select Specialty Hospital
EXTENDED CARE
Assessed and provided interventions to long-term acute care patients; furthered development of skills in performing nutrition-focused physical exams, providing enteral nutrition recommendations, and efficient note writing; attended team rounds; performed a literature review of the role of nutrition in COVID-19 long-term acute care patients.
Preceptor feedback:
"Rachel was a pleasure to have on site. She catches on quickly to concepts, did very well with Epic documentation, and is an independent worker. I was impressed with her clinical nutrition abilities given this was only her 2nd clinical rotation. She showed improvement throughout the rotation and took constructive feedback will. We typically stick with our lower acuity patients for the Extended Care rotation, but Rachel expressed interest in seeing more “difficult” patients so we happily facilitated that and she did a great job!"
UW Hospital
CLINICAL SKILLS
Observed the role of a diet technician at UW Hospital; assisted with room service orders and brief education sessions; shadowed call center employees to learn their role in clinical nutrition; assisted with formula mixing and distribution in the Milk Lab at American Family Children's Hospital
UW Hospital
FOOD SYSTEMS
Observed large-scale hospital food service operations; assisted in assuring proper food safety management; developed a vegan holiday meal which included a menu, recipe development for high-volume production, nutrition facts, and waste analysis; filmed and produced a cooking demonstration featuring a vegan holiday-themed five course meal; developed educational material for team huddles and social media surrounding ServSafe guidelines for food safety.
UW-Health Hospitals and Clinics
AMBULATORY FREE CHOICE: TRANSPLANT
Assessed patients seeking lung, kidney, liver, and pancreas transplants using motivational interviewing framework; addressed patient concerns including malnutrition and frailty; provided appropriate education and interventions; conducted a literature review that was later featured in UW-Health's Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Preceptor feedback:
"Rachel, great work in this rotation. [We] really enjoyed watching you grow throughout the last four weeks, but especially in the last two. Your motivational interviewing skills and note writing skills really improved. We wish we could keep you longer! You'd be a great transplant dietitian."
UW-Health Hospitals and Clinics
OUTPATIENT RENAL
Conduced nutrition assessments for potential kidney donors and recipients using motivational interviewing framework; provided appropriate education and recommendations; developed handouts featuring strategies for eating out on a renal diet and meat substitutes that fit within renal dietary restrictions.
Preceptor feedback:
"Great work! We have enjoyed having you for the renal rotation. We were really impressed with the completeness of your module and the in-depth understanding that you started the rotation with. In addition, your handouts were very professional and complete. We loved them!"
UW-Health East and West Clinics
OUTPATIENT DIABETES
Observed counseling sessions; provided useful handouts for diabetes management; continued developing note writing and motivational interviewing skills; coordinated care with the interdisciplinary team.
Preceptor feedback:
"Rachel made great progress during [the] diabetes rotation. [I] feel her knowledge level is adequate and increased by leaps [and] bounds by the end of [this] rotation. [She] takes initiative and [has] strong desire for learning. [She] writes clear and concise notes that flow well. All in all, [a] joy to work with."
UW-Health East and West Clinics
OUTPATIENT ORIENTATION
Developed initial skills in motivational interviewing, writing notes, and providing accurate and relevant nutrition diagnoses and appropriate interventions.
Preceptor feedback:
"Rachel has a good understanding of nutrition and was able to apply that during our rotation. She was calm and confident working with patients and did a good job with a full screen."
UW-Health Hospitals and Clinics
MNT RESEARCH
Conducted an extensive literature search to perform a thorough journal article critique; presented findings at UW-Health's Department of Nutrition journal club; created social media to promote nutrition research in the community.
Preceptor feedback:
"It was wonderful to work with you, Rachel! I think your journal article choice stimulated a thoughtful discussion amongst your peers and preceptors. It aligned directly with your research goal of understanding how research can impact nutrition care."
Hy-Vee
PUBLIC HEALTH, HY-VEE
Wrote and produced film promoting National Family Meals Month to be broadcast on local news stations; developed marketing material to advertise dietitian-approved free sample bags included in online shopping orders; created recipe cards to encourage shoppers to try new products; created grocery lists to complement virtual store tours.
Preceptor feedback:
"Rachel worked well with in-person and virtual settings of this rotation. She is creative and added a visual
element to TV interviews, through video clips and images, that were well received."
Badger Prairie Needs Network
PUBLIC HEALTH, BADGER PRAIRIE NEEDS NETWORK
Worked with my preceptors to develop a point-based food pantry shopping system to be implemented when in-person shopping returns. Assisted with food pantry operations including stocking, packaging food, aiding with curbside pickup, and portioning ready-to-eat meals.