There’s a lot more than MNT that goes into your clinical nutrition rotation. And being successful as an RD for the long term, often depends on these 4 things.
4 Tips to Succeed in Clinical Nutrition Rotation
From school to the dietetic internship to the real world. Becoming a great RD isn’t always a straight path. It can take a lot of practice and rethinking or re-learning many things we thought were key to nutrition. Sometimes it also means finding a new set of skills that we never learned in school.
This is a list of 4 must-remember tips for dietitians new to clinical nutrition. There’s a lot here that will help you give focus to your dietetic internship experience (especially your clinical nutrition rotations). But this will also give anyone just starting out in clinical nutrition a solid place to start building their skill set on a deeper level.
So let’s dive in…
What’s Coming Up: The 4 keys to clinical DI success
- This isn’t school. Learning will happen differently here, it’s important to be prepared for that.
- You’ve got to find your voice. Developing your unique style as an RD is what will make you stand out, valued and respected.
- Learn your likes and dislikes. Knowing where you want to focus your career will help you make decisions that will keep you happy and sane.
- Know your worth. Getting clear on how much you deserve to be compensated for your work is part of developing clarity and confidence.
FIRST: This isn’t school
The first thing to remember as you’re starting to think through your new career in nutrition, is it’s going to be different than school was. Very different. School doesn’t always teach us what the real world is going to be like. School teaches the theory. It’s a how-to guide for a perfect world.
What school doesn’t teach is how to navigate the messiness that happens when your patients aren’t perfect. When everyone on the health care team doesn’t do their job efficiently. When you’re missing information or are being badgered by a family member.
Learning that stuff is supposed to be the job of the internship. And very often, it works this way. Our internships show up strong and we walk away with a full set of skills that last us a lifetime. I’m sure you’ve heard those stories, right? Someone you know who had an amazing experience in their internship or had a preceptor who changed their life. Hopefully this will be you also.
But sometimes, our DI’s feel a little lacking. You’re stuck finding a clinical preceptor. Your virtual rotation isn’t what you hoped (or needed) it to be. Your preceptor is smart and great at her job, but she’s not a great teacher and it’s hard to figure out why she’s doing what she’s doing.
Remember, this isn’t school. Information won’t always be handed to you and sometimes you’ve got to do a little extra work on your own. I know this isn’t idea in your clinical nutrition rotation, but it’s a basic life lesson – sometimes we’ve got to figure things out on our own.
When you hit that wall, find another resource or ask someone else to help fill in the blanks. There’s no wrong way to do this, and there’s nothing wrong with moving outside of the DI structure. The only right answer is whatever works for you.
SECOND: Find your voice
During your internship and your clinical nutrition rotations, you’re going to have preceptors who’ve been on the job for a while. They’re going to have very specific ways of writing notes, evaluating patients and determining diet orders. And they’re probably correct in the way they’re doing these things.
But it’s important to remember that there are a thousand ways to the top of the mountain. And just because you have a clinical preceptor who insists you phrase things in one way every time, doesn’t mean your unique style is wrong.
Becoming an RD is just as much about finding your own voice and knowing how YOU would like to implement the skills you’re gathering in your internship, as it is about learning those skills in the first place. Ultimately, your success in clinical nutrition depends on you being true to a style of nutrition that speaks to your experiences and personal beliefs.
You’ll meet RDs who are extremely conservative in the way they provide clinical support, and you’ll meet ones who are very liberal in their approach. It’s likely that whoever you encounter will encourage you to follow their path.
But once you’ve got those two letters behind your name, deciding what type of RD you are is your decision and yours alone.
THIRD: Figure out what you (don’t) like about your clinical nutrition rotation
One of the beautiful things about going through a dietetic internship is the chance to experience a variety of settings. Even in a long-term care clinical rotation, an acute care rotation or if you only get the chance to do outpatient, you’re going to spend time doing a lot of different things.
Working in an ICU is very different than a medical unit. Nutrition counseling on therapeutic diets is very different than writing tube feed orders. Chances are you’ll find something that you like more than something else. Make a note of when you see something or do something that seems a little more exciting than everything else. Focus in on that thing and ask to do lots more of it.
I remember when I was going into my DI, I just KNEW that clinical was NOT my thing. I was not interested in it and was fully prepared to just hold my breath until the whole thing was over. But what I learned was that nutrition counseling in a clinical setting pulled me in. It made me want to do a little research for patients, gather a little more information for their family to go home with, get better at explaining their new therapeutic diet. I’d always imagined nutrition counseling was something that happened in an outpatient setting or in private practice. I didn’t realize how much counseling was done at a clinical level for patients who had acute needs.
Once I found that thing I liked, I started pouring all my energy into getting better at tying clinical nutrition into nutrition counseling.
FOURTH: Know your worth
This one is a little more conceptual. And it’s much easier said than done.
Dietitians, more than maybe any other health care professional, have to fight a little harder for respect. Hearing things like “the patient wants to change their meal, call dietary” can feel like a shot straight through your master’s degree. Having a doctor walk in the room and literally interrupt you mid-sentence as you’re explaining someone’s therapeutic diet to them, can feel insulting beyond measure. This is why it’s so important to get comfortable being able to stand up for yourself, even if that means pushing against doctors and reminding people you’re a dietitian and not “dietary”.
Another part to this is the literal side of knowing your worth: money. An RD once told me: “never undercharge for your services because whatever you charge sets a standard for everyone else in nutrition that client will meet”. That really stuck with me. It’s so easy to start out in nutrition with the fear of not being good enough or not knowing enough ingrained in your soul. There’s the worry you don’t know enough. The worry you can’t help enough. The worry your client will be able to tell that you don’t know enough and can’t help them enough.
Forget all of that.
You are the nutrition expert in the room. Whatever you know, there’s a very good chance it’s way more than your client knows. Even if you’re just talking about MyPlate and reminding them that moderation is the key to a well-balanced diet. Don’t underestimate how much people don’t know.
And That's It!
Whether you’re prepping for your DI, going through your clinical nutrition rotation right now or about to jump into your first clinical job, keep these 4 tips close. And after a while, they’ll be so ingrained in your everyday you won’t even realize they’re there.
That’s when you know, you’re probably way better at nutrition than you’re giving yourself credit for.
Want even more to help in clinical?
Check out The Nutrition Cheat Sheets Shop for all the nutrition education and clinical resources that will make your life easier.
