Tri-County Health Department Dietetic Internship

Dear TCHD 'dietetic intern' graduates,

It has been months since logging into the TCHD Dietetic Internship page and now, I'm sending one last sendoff post as the Tri-County Health Department (of 75 years) and dietetic internship will officially close its doors on December 31, 2022. Clearly a tactic of avoiding the inevitable of saying 'good-bye' to a one-of-a-kind dietetic internship that TCHD supported all 30+ years.

I am thankful for the prior Dietetic Internship (DI) Director(s) that came before me for the vision to create and continue an accredited dietetic internship at the local public health level. One of the very few internships in local public health at the national level. What a gift to serve as the last DI Director for the TCHD dietetic internship.

Thank you to all community partners, TCHD staff, other Colorado DPD and DI programs (CHCO, MSU-Denver, UNC, Johnson & Wales and CSU), and of course to the interns who made the Program one of the best! I will truly miss this role, miss the smart, kind, innovative dietetic interns. All of you added so much value, in many ways to TCHD. A big heartfelt THANK YOU! ⭐️

If for some reason any of you need your Verification Statements, we have them safe and sound! Or if you'd like to reach out for updates, references or just to say "Hi", please feel free to reach out to me ([email protected]). Most of us in the Nutrition Division are not too far away, staying connected and still working in public health 💚💙.

Warm wishes always as we close out this beautiful one-of-a-kind DI sunset 💛. We all will miss this piece of our professional work and all the gifts it brought to us as a Nutrition team!

Best wishes, always!

Michelle

“This week I completed my pediatric rotation at CHCO where I got to experience a lifestyle nutrition clinic, an allergy clinic, and a special care clinic for higher needs children. It’s been great to see the pediatric dietitians conduct assessments and counseling sessions in a clinical setting rather than community like we see at WIC. It’s very satisfying to see the clinical and educational skills I’ve been developing all year being used by these RDs in their practice. I see medical nutrition therapy and behavior/picky eating counseling happening and I’m drawing from my own rotations, even school food service!
Seeing all the skills I’ve been working on come together in one setting feels like an appropriate ending to this internship experience.”

Rosie N.

It’s surreal to think that we will be finishing our internship in the next 2 weeks! Last week I did one of my last external rotations with Children’s Hospital Colorado. I got to shadow dietitians in a few different clinics including the pulmonary/Cystic Fibrosis clinic. I learned so much about Cystic Fibrosis and how it can affect nutrition. Did you know that Cystic Fibrosis affects more than just the lungs? CF is a disease that causes the body to produce thick, sticky mucus. In the lungs, this can clog airways and trap germs which can lead to infections, inflammation, and respiratory failure. In the pancreas, it can cause ducts to clog, preventing the secretion of the enzymes needed to digest foods and absorb nutrients, leading to malnutrition and poor growth. It can also cause parts of the pancreas to be damaged which can lead to CF-related diabetes. In the liver, the thickened mucus can block the bile duct, leading to liver disease. In men, CF can affect their ability to have children. CF also causes problems with normal salt reabsorption through the skin when sweating. In addition to many other medications, CF patients need to take digestive enzymes to help them absorb nutrients and need to eat extra salt daily to replenish their supplies. In the 1950s, babies born with CF rarely lived more than a few days. With all the advancement in CF research and with new modulator drugs available today, the life expectancy has drastically improved. Many people living with CF now can attend college, get married, and have families and careers.

Claire

We are in the final stretch of our WIC rotations! This week I will close out this chapter of the internship. I have absolutely loved this rotation! The WIC Educators, RD’s, and clients have all been amazing. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time.

Last week, I presented to the Aurora South WIC clinic on first foods for infants, emphasizing protein and meat as a first food. I talked about the key nutrients protein and meat offer such as Iron and Zinc as well as discussed how meat consumption may help with psychomotor development for infants. I encouraged staff to promote meat as a first food to help meet critical nutrient needs and potentially help infants in their growth and development.

Sarah Saulsbury-dietetic intern

Last week, I got to give a short presentation about sleep to the WIC team I am completing my WIC rotation with. Did you know that getting proper sleep can help to prevent type 2 diabetes, obesity, poor mental health, injuries and attention or behavior problems? These are some tips I shared to encourage better sleep in children, but they can be used for adults trying to get better sleep as well. Sweet dreams everyone!

Claire Benoist
Dietetic Intern, WIC

“I can’t believe we are graduating from our dietetic internship here at TCHD in exactly ONE month! 🤯 There are so many mixed emotions: gratitude for all of the amazing opportunities, excitement for the future, feeling sad to be parting ways with so many amazing people, but most of all feeling so unbelievably lucky to have had the opportunity to receive these once- in- a- lifetime experiences provided by our amazing director and preceptors 💚.
I am wrapping up my last few days at WIC this week and I will have a week in pediatric clinical nutrition later this month. The rest of my days will be filled with wrapping up tasks for our public health community nutrition rotation…time is flying! Cheers to our last month as dietetic interns!

Sarah Shannon, Dietetic Intern”

“This WIC rotation has been flying by! I have begun taking some high risk appointments by myself and it has been such a joy being able to help mothers obtain services and resources which help their families. One of my favorite parts of speaking with clients is explaining all of the amazing benefits they get using their eWIC card 🍏. There is even an amazing app that we encourage clients to download to guide them through their shopping experience! Through the eWIC shopper app clients are able to see their balance, locate stores in their area that participate in WIC, and even scan barcodes on items to see if they qualify with their benefits! It has been a game changing tool for both the WIC staff and clients. I have a feeling these last three weeks of the rotation will continue to go by quickly, and I intend to soak up everything that I can before my time here is done.

Until next time!
Sarah Shannon, DI “

Last week I presented my research project on the health benefits of seaweed consumption to the TCHD RDs and my fellow interns. I’m so glad I picked this topic because I had no idea how wonderfully nutritious seaweed is! Fun fact, many compounds in seaweeds are powerful antioxidants, which we know are beneficial, so if we add seaweed into our diets here and there, we can get a unique boost from a really tasty plant! It’s important to keep investigating things like this so we can expand our diets to be not only more colorful and delicious, but also nutritious.
The rest of the interns will be presenting their research projects over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for what they’ve been up to!
-Rosie N.

💚 Yesterday was the first day in over 2 YEARS 🎉 that we had our RD/RDN monthly meeting in-person! It was heartwarming to see fellow RDN's and staff affirming, acknowledging and supporting one another throughout the morning! In addition, to lots of smiles & laughter!

Sarah and Rosie were also able to present their community rotation position papers. Great job, great questions, good times.

Michelle

For anyone who applied to DICAS this year, Sunday was Match Day. This marks a year since my Match Day, so I took a little trip down memory lane in my camera roll and had to share a couple screen shots. So many emotions all in under 5 seconds, that’s the power of Match Day for you *laughing face emoji*. Congrats to all who matched! You have an exciting year ahead 😊

I am now in my third week of WIC at the Aurora East clinic and I couldn’t have asked for a better placement. I was thrown into the ring on just my second week in the office, taking appointments from Follow-up’s to Recertifications! I am now on a full WIC Educator’s schedule, with an entirely packed day of appointments! I’ve even started taking Certifications and Add Baby appointments (the most complicated). Next week I’ll start transitioning to High-Risk appointments with the RD’s and I cannot wait!

I am so grateful to have such a supportive team at this office. Even when I was nervous about taking appointments in the beginning, they kept reminding me that they were there to help and affirmed that I was on the right path! This has been by far my favorite internship rotation and I’m heartbroken that it will eventually come to an end. My counseling skills and knowledge regarding prenatal, postpartum, infant, and childhood nutrition have expanded beyond my belief.

I am excited and eager to see what else is to come over the following 4 weeks!

Lena – Dietetic Intern