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Community Rotation Overall Reflection

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.

My WIC rotation provided me not only with experiences in counseling, nutrition


education, and child nutrition, but also experiences interacting with different cultures, literacy
levels, and baseline nutrition knowledge. Most WIC participants at this particular office were of
Hispanic cultures. Interestingly, my preceptor shared with me her experiences that more Hispanic
clients were likely to breastfeed their children than other cultures. A decent amount of these
clients were very limited in their ability to speak English, as well as their ability to read and
write. This seemed challenging for my preceptor, who is not bilingual, to communicate
effectively with these clients. Through my observations, I often felt that nutrition messages were
not properly disseminated to these clients due to the language barrier. This seemed unfortunate,
as there is certainly a stronger opportunity to promote healthy eating behaviors in this setting
when comparing it to nutrition education and counseling in an inpatient setting. WIC nutritionists
have the capacity to positively influence the lives of their clients through these visits and
counseling sessions, but the language barrier seemed to greatly interfere.
Farm Project
My final rotation of the internship was located at a farm. This farm is unique in that it
runs based on a program involving community shares. This farm project is a non-profit
organization that grows various fruits and vegetables, and donates much of the produce to local
farmers markets as well as residents in need of healthy food. The city this farm project is located
in has been considered a food desert, as there are many low-income residents who do not have
access to fresh fruits and vegetables. One of the goals of this farm project is to improve resident
access to fresh fruits and vegetables, thereby improving the overall health of the community. An
additionally important goal of this organization is to provide nutrition education to the
community through fresh produce exposure and healthy cooking demonstrations.

During my time at this site, I participated in a variety of hands-on activities. A good


chunk of these activities involved aspects of gardening and farming including weeding, planting,
maintaining beds, potting, and harvesting different fruits and vegetables (mainly strawberries,
asparagus, and kale). These particular activities were helpful in enhancing my knowledge and
skills in growing different fruits, vegetables and other plants. Ive gained a new appreciation for
the processes of growing fruits and vegetables, and these activities have inspired me to pursue
gardening on my own time as a way of improving my sustainability practices. These activities
have also provided me with a different perspective on nutrition which I feel will follow me into
my career as an RD.
Another major activity during this rotation involved observing and participating in farm
visits in which school children (typically 3rd graders) would come to the farm for a field trip. I
learned the standard teaching process involving an educational and observational tour of the farm
followed by an interactive cooking demonstration using fresh fruits and vegetables harvested
during the farm tour.
Lastly, I spent time developing educational materials for nutrition education at the mobile
farmers markets, as well as other nutrition-related handouts. I created a nutrition handout
targeted towards adult men, focusing on the importance of fruit and vegetable consumption in
fighting heart disease. I also included a section on reasons to increase nut consumption.
Additionally, I developed a flier for the farm projects summer institute for gardening as well as a
press release for a local school garden. The educational materials developed for my wellness
activity at the mobile farmers markets included several recipe handouts featuring certain
vegetables (kohlrabi, kale, swiss chard, collard greens) and a nutrition information handout
focusing on fighting heart disease and vegetable subgroups. These handouts were coordinated

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.

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