Good morning — TGIF!
I’ve spent this week at my hospital dietetic internship on the cardiac floors — it’s been really interesting and I feel like I’ve actually helped some people because these are the types of patients that really need help with nutrition as they are getting ready to go home from the hospital. Oh, and FYI — if you wear a white lab coat in a hospital, even if you introduce yourself as from the Nutrition department, the patients will all still call you “Doctor” when you leave. Thanks for the promotion, guys. 😉
It’s hard to feel like you’re making a difference in the hospital sometimes because you have such a short amount of time with the patients and many of them are so sick that nutrition isn’t exactly what they care about. Plus, you’re usually just assessing malnutrition risk while in the hospital, not talking to them about diet/lifestyle outside the hospital at all. The exception is if you get an order from the doctor for a “diet education” — this can be all sorts of things, like an education about how much Vitamin K to eat if you’re taking a blood thinner called Coumadin, a heart healthy diet education for cardiac patients, a low sodium/low fluid diet for people with Congestive Heart Failure, etc. It’s definitely my favorite part of the internship so far — some people haven’t really cared at all, but a few have been really interested and engaged and seemed like they took some of my tips to heart. You only have about 15 minutes to spend with them usually so I try to focus on a few big takeaway points — I don’t want to overwhelm them with a million details (or recommend things that will be unrealistic for their socioeconomic level/lifestyle).
Anyway! Speaking of hospitals and doctors (to be), I met up with my good friend Gena last night for dinner!
Gena is currently working on her Post-Baccalaureate at Georgetown University and will be applying to med schools next year; she actually volunteered last summer at the hospital where I’m working this summer! Wish she were there now, too. 🙂 We always have a great time chatting all things nutrition and health, and of course catching up on each other’s lives as well.
We decided to try a new (to both of us) place in Clarendon last night called Pete’s Apizza. I started with a spinach salad with some really delicious roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, and pine nuts:
And for our main course, we shared a pizza! Pete’s Apizza is fun because they offer a gluten free/vegan crust made from chickpea flour! You guys know I love me some chickpea flour. 🙂
We added a ton of veggies to the pizza and, since Gena is vegan, we left off the cheese. Fine with me — I think sauce is the best part of a pizza anyway, let’s be honest. 😉
The chickpea flour crust was delicious! I loved that it was really thin and crispy — my favorite. Especially the edges! Nice flavor, too.
Gena and I enjoyed a nice, long, chatty dinner, then took a stroll since the weather was nice and ended up at my apartment for more chatting. 🙂 Thanks for a fun night, Gena!
I’m off to my last day of cardiac rotations at the hospital — I’m teaching a cardiac heart healthy nutrition class this morning to a bigger group of patients, which should be cool. Next week, I move on to surgery!
Happy Friday, friends!
