Angelina Caradonna
Community:
I was fortunate to have diverse rotations to fulfill my community hours, which allowed me to have exposure to the various roles a community dietitian can have within this field. Below are these experiences.
Moms2B is a community-based pregnancy program for low-income women established by The Ohio State University in 2010, with the goal of reducing infant mortality and promoting maternal health. They hold weekly education and support sessions at sites around Columbus, to encourage healthier lifestyle choices and link the moms with resources. On board are several health professionals including doctors, nurses, social workers, dietitians, lactation counselors, navigators, and community health workers to provide this service. I got to be an intern under a dietitian here, where I had my first exposure to one-on-one counseling outside of the classroom. My eyes were opened to the depth of adversities these moms face, and saw how my preceptor successfully counseled with an adaptable, dynamic approach to help these women. Click on my reflection down below to read more about my thoughts on this experience, including the specific stories of the moms we got to help.
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At Moms2B I was also able to deliver nutrition education in the group lessons, not only using the materials provided, taking the initiative to add my own content as well. I learned how to lead a group discussion and took steps to engage the participant population, diverse in culture, race, and level of education. Below are also some of the projects I completed during this rotation, including a recipe conversion with nutrient analysis of meals served at the sessions, and a research paper I wrote comparing and contrasting breast feeding vs. formula feeding.
I had a diverse experience at Ohio Wesleyan University, where I had a hand in their dining services, sports nutrition, and personal student counseling. To the left is a flier I created promoting my nutrition counseling services to the OWU students through their health services. I made myself available for hour long sessions, where we discussed the questions and concerns of the student's issue. I collected multiple points of health data to form a holistic approach including height, weight, age, gender, sleep, exercise, stress level, bowel movements, menstrual cycle changes, etc. and utilized the MI counseling approach, finishing with setting SMART goals and the referenced print handouts for the students to take home, such as MyPlate guidelines and resources from the Academy and OSU. This was my first immersive counseling experience, I found that each student I met with presented unique challenges in which I had to approach the session well prepared for whatever the client needed, thinking on my feet to formulate an approach that would best work for that individual. These sessions gave me the opportunity to spread my wings and develop my counseling skills. I even was fortunate enough to receive positive feedback about my performance as a counselor. The student health center actually received an email from a student I met with, who complemented my ability to address her dietary needs in an understanding and compassionate way that she had rarely seen in any medical professional. Click below to view an example note my notes from a counseling session.
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I also had the opportunity to work with OWU's dining services and athletics department. Students came to me during the counseling sessions about ways to improve their dining hall experience based on a diet they followed, either religious or not, in which I later set up a meeting with dining services and relayed this to them, with suggestions from the students and myself from my previous experience working in dining halls as an undergrad. I also met with the athletics department to discuss potential nutrition programming needs. I was able to counsel some athletes during the personal counseling sessions, however I was able to reach a larger audience by creating a sports nutrition lecture for the women's lacrosse team athletes, in which I presented to them followed by a Q/A session. Navigate the tabs to view my presentation.
My exposure to counseling continued during my Women, Infant Children (WIC) rotation, where I got to sit in and eventually lead consultations with WIC recipients. Depending on the day I was at different Columbus WIC locations including Southside, Georgesville, and Eastland clinics, so I was able to interact with a diverse demographic of people. I observed my preceptor in the initial consultations but I was soon leading my own sessions, even taking the height and weight of the babies and children. I utilized a number of WIC resource handouts to give visuals while discussing the nutrition needs of their children, and for them to take home to serve as a reminder when feeding them. I definitely had to think on my feet when counseling, especially when they had specific questions, I utilized the resources I had available and my own knowledge to provide the best information that I could. Other than the consultations, I also had a role in helping the Mid Ohio Food Bank distributions at the Eastland and Southside clinics, attended a WIC breastfeeding education class, and created infographics and recipe cards utilizing WIC benefits, that WIC posted on their social media pages (shown to the left).
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During the consultations, I found that most parents I met with were already motivated to follow a health plan for their child, I could tell that they really wanted the best for them. For example, with one family the parents were heavy smokers so we discussed how smoking is harmful especially for growing babies and children, which motivated them to seek out one of WIC's affiliate programs that helps individuals quit smoking. I appreciated working with those from diverse backgrounds, and learning how to best navigate the session to benefit the clients. In one session there was a couple where the husband spoke for his wife, I watched my preceptor respectfully honor this as soon as she discovered this was their preference. Another example was when there was a family from a French speaking African country who didn't speak English very well. I helped them navigate their paperwork and was able to utilize my French skills! Overall I really enjoyed counseling the individuals at WIC and unpacking the nutrition needs for either their baby in utero or through the child's 5th year of life, it was a challenge to navigate the specific needs of each individual especially those from different backgrounds or required an interpreter, but it was an enlightening and positive experience to work with these populations.
The Simple Suppers rotation lasted the span of my internship, it was an OSU research initiative that focused on the impact of nutrition education & consuming family meals, on the health of children and their parents. I met with my fellow interns weekly in the evenings at a preschool on the southside of Columbus, where we were assigned to either educate the parents/guardians, children, or cook the meal. The program was set up so that half of the evening was spent educating, and half was spent eating the meal prepared as a family. I was a leader in the child education, the ages ranging from pre-school to middle school, which made it a lot of fun. Some of the things we got to teach were proper cutting techniques for fruits and vegetables with dull knives, using measuring cups to portion out rice and dry beans, and assembling fresh fruit and yogurt parfaits. We also read picture books about nutrition, and decorated aprons. I really enjoyed working with the kids, it was great to see them so engaged in our content and to be able to view nutrition through their eyes.
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When COVID hit unfortunately we had to halt in-person sessions, however we decided to keep the education going by creating videos. 3 days a week my classmates and I compiled videos that were posted on Simple Suppers' social media, until the end of the program. We were given a set of loose guidelines for these videos, but for the most part we had creative freedom to choose how we wanted to present our topics of choice. Below are my video contributions:
Using Herbs & Spices to Create Flavorful Meals
