Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jenna Godfrey
Nearing the end of my dietetic internship, my final rotations included WIC and a nonprofit farm project. My community rotation began with two weeks at a local countys WIC
office, observing their Registered Dietitian conduct WIC visits. My second and ultimately final
rotation was spent at a local non-profit farm project for five weeks. These two rotations, while
more relaxed in nature than previous clinical and foodservice rotations, provided me with
invaluable learning experiences in the field of community nutrition.
WIC
The majority of my two week rotation at WIC was spent observing various visits
including initial certifications and health and nutrition updates. I became very familiar with the
standard set of questions my preceptor went through during each visit, and how these questions
related to the nutritional status of young children and expecting mothers. These questions
included topics of picky eating behavior, fruit and vegetable consumption, percent intake of
juices and milk, usage of bottles or cups, established food textures, and recent blood work or
immunizations. In addition to observing these visits, I was given the opportunity to assist with
weighing and measuring height/length of participating children. This was certainly an interesting
experience, particularly in the area of seeing the differences in emotional reactions between
different age groups. I was also able to observe hemoglobin checks using a finger-pricking
device that measures the hemoglobin level instantly. We encountered several instances of low
hemoglobin which indicated potential iron deficiency. During these cases, my preceptor allowed
me to provide parents with brief nutrition education on iron. I subsequently used one of these
cases and nutrition education encounters in writing up an NCP form.
with the implementation of my lesson plan and cooking demonstration at the mobile farmers
market sites during the final week of my rotation. These activities were extremely beneficial in
strengthening my nutrition communication skills.