Finding purchase in the world of acute dietetics

I had another post planned for today, but I thought this one a little more timely to share.

This is a post all about my ICU placement, and how this placement really kind of evolved me in the acute setting of dietetics.

I was nervous about ICU.

There was a lot of math involved – calculating tube feed formulas and all.

There was also a lot of sickness involved. These people are the sickest of the sick. I didn’t know how I would handle being around that.

Turns out, I handled it well.

This placement.

This placement, my efficiency skyrocketed. I had a full caseload by day 2. I was multi-tasking like no one’s business, speaking up in rounds, calculating new tube feed formulas, making adjustments to previous tube feed rates, putting orders in, advocating for more comfy feeding tubes, and documenting my findings and outcomes, pretty much all at the same time.

This placement, my charting skills went up a notch as well; I got huge props on my clarity and organization with my documentation.

This placement, I gained crazy math confidence – hello tube feeds! I was calculating feed after feed after feed. I was making daily adjustments, based on medications, changes in formula, increased needs, reduced needs, etc., etc. And by the end, I was doing it all by memory, no longer requiring my sample calculations for guidance.

For me, that’s huge!

This placement.

This placement my heart cracked a little when a young man, a boy, really, was suspected to be brain dead after an overdose.

As a mom, that was so hard.

This placement I walked straight into an emergency open chest crash cart at the bedside, and then proceeded to march myself right back out.

Nutrition was most certainly not top of mind.

This placement I witnessed a small bore, nasogastric tube insert twice in one day, and quickly realized tube placements are so not my jam. I can deal with blood. I can deal with ventilators. I can deal with various medical machines, but tubes going through the nostrils, no thank you!

This placement.

This placement I found myself standing strong and standing tall in the world of acute dietetics.

This placement I went from following dietitians to leading nutrition.

That was pretty freaking cool!

Screen Shot 2020-02-09 at 4.48.27 PM
That smile on my face is nearly the same smile I had upon realizing I was rocking the ICU … only thing missing was rounds with McDreamy 😀

And now, I’m off for three weeks working in the diabetes clinic!

Leave a Reply