Episode 110: Story Time - Completing Dietetic Internships During a Pandemic
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Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah discuss their experiences with their dietetic internships during a global pandemic. The girls look back on missing their graduations and finding their first jobs. Tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to listen.
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welcome to another episode of the upbeat dietitians podcast Hello everybody
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welcome back to the Pod we've got another story time for you guys today we
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are bringing it back to our internship days which this was a time where Emily
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and I didn't really see each other very much so not a lot of Emily stories for
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this time except for I guess fancy um but other than that we were doing our
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own thing we can kind of set the scene like we did last time I guess would that be a good place to start you think yeah okay well I guess I can start I was
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still at Purdue um I did Purdue's coordinated program if you're not familiar with dietetic
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internships it is sort of like your clinicals after you finish your undergrad
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um it's a little different for Emily because she did do her Masters at the same time so she'll explain that but during mine I did produce coordinated
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program so after you finish your four years-ish of undergrad class work before
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you actually graduate you do like another year and that is like your internship and today we're going to go
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over like what we did and how we navigated that during the pandemic because we did both do our internships
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like during that exact time it was kind of crazy um so yeah that was the scene for me I
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was going through Purdue's program but I was living in Fort Wayne most of the
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time yes I like Hannah said I was in my
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internship which is like clinicals rotations while also doing my Master's
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and I don't think I was in Illinois during 9
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11 with family save that money on rent um but it was just kind of like doing
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classes in the evening and going to rotations during the day
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and yeah I feel like we can just kind of get right into it because yeah it
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doesn't get that much more exciting than school and
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going to clinicals yeah I think I think the craziest part about it for us was
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that we were doing it during the pandemic so like for me how it lined up
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was I started in August of 2019 and I had my community rotation which lasted
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for about three weeks and I was at a local hospital like doing community events and stuff and then I had food
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service at the big hospital which I also the clinicals at um but then clinicals started in the
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spring semester so January 2020 to paint the scene so like right before like
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everything shut down and it was like right before I got to staff
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relief and staff relief is where you like take over some of the patients that
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the RDS are seeing so I actually never did well wait I did one week of Staff relief I think I think
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I had three scheduled but like it was March when it was getting to that time
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and I remember like I got an email from my preceptor saying like it's up to you balls in your core like
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there's this like virus if you want to like work from home you can or you can
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stay and obviously I was like I work at a giant hospital I'm not going to risk staying here where it likely is going to
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be huge here it's like the biggest Hospital in the area um I remember too like before March like I
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would go to rounds with the dietitians and like there would be doctors in the rounds like talking about it and it was
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like very scary because we had no idea obviously what was going on did you ever have that where you heard like from other providers like talking about Emily
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a little bit yeah I think it was like we were kind of like all I don't want to
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say no I want to say we were in denial but we were like oh yeah like but then like the more and more we
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started hearing about it it was like the more isolation rooms there were like the more like
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heavily because I don't want to say guarded they were not being guarded like heavily
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secluded they were as it was but like I remember in January like 2020 like we
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were hearing about it in like China and I was like oh this is just a virus like
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it's another sickness like and they seem to be handling it well so it won't come
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here how about March 2020 and our entire like
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World changed at least in the US I wasn't really tracking other countries
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that well what rotation were you in during like March 2020 I was in clinicals okay and
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my program how it looked was like June 2019 is when I started but it was just like classes there were no rotations I
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don't even think I started my first rotation until fall 2019 I think it was food service but my our big one was
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clinicals it was supposed to be 12 weeks and I was at the biggest trauma Hospital
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in the south side of Chicago which is like a very cool experience like crazy things they're seeing all the time so
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like it was a really great rotation and I remember I was like
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sitting on my bed doing whatever and I got a call from my
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preceptor and she was like hey
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they're closing down all like internship programs like any type of students like
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no one is allowed like they didn't even get me like give me like the option they were like
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you do not come in tomorrow or the next day or the next day after that
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and I was like okay and then I was like of course me being me I like I always
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left my lab coat there so I was like when can I pick up my lab coat and she was like we'll figure out a
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time in the future like Jump Ahead a year that that's what I literally went back it's like they had
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my lab coat at the hospital in my head I was like is it getting on the lab coat
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like it's been in this disease area yeah that was crazy because like that's what we think of too and like do we have to
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like wear different clothes to the hospital and then like change when we get home like even like before like I
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got set home that's what we're talking about inside the office was like do we have like work shoes and then home shoes
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like it was just so unknown yeah it was definitely I feel like it started settling in when like I would go into
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like isolation rooms where like it might happen and I'd be like full PPE eat up
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and like the Gown the gloves mask face shield and then I remember the the memes
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were very good around this time like despite the dire situation
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um at least from a dietitian standpoint that means we're good we're like I would be told to see a patient who
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like potentially had covered and my the dietitians were like do not go in that
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room and see them like and I remember do you know the the video of Jim from the office where
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he's like looking looking through the glass
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dietetic injury into trying to do their nutrition Al physical exams
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that's not exactly and for reference if you don't know what
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that is essentially in order to assess for malnutrition like there's certain
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parts of the body We Touch for like to test for like fat or muscle loss but
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obviously if you cannot go into a room with a patient you cannot really tell where like
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potentially there's like lack of fat deposits or muscle mass so we're gonna
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just like staring at them like does it look like they're like temples
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might be a little bit capables like what's going on on your hands yeah
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so it was definitely wild I feel like and also this is like such a small
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detail but it like really confused me at the start of the pandemic I don't know if you noticed this because you were also
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like in the clinical setting but everyone in the hospital referred to it
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as covid and then but everyone else in the world like on the news like just general
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conversation was calling it coronavirus so I was like so I didn't know how to
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spell coronavirus because I was such of course you did it
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this is Mary on brand for me oh my God this is so funny
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so like I remember I was at a friend's house and it was some like game where
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like you link up your phone to the TV and like you input
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things and like one of the responses like had to do with Coronavirus
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and I like tried to I try to type it out and I typed it incorrectly because I and
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then I got so much hate from all my friends so like Emily literally this is
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all people are talking about you can't even spell it right I'm like sorry in the hospital we all write covid no one
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writes coronavirus in the hospital this is so very aspartame all over again yes
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I'm very minor detail but I was like
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this is what the healthcare professionals are saying so that's what I'm going to call it yeah we call it
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covet 2 and actually I shouldn't make fun of you because I actually for a long time like when I was I don't even know
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maybe like four until like third or fourth grade I lived in a place called Corona Indiana
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Tiny Town like if you guys know where that is I want to be your friend because there's no way like you know what that
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is very small town um and so it's spelled differently than coronavirus so I also didn't know how to
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spell um virus for a while because I thought it was the same as Corona Indiana which
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is very different so I I shouldn't judge but it is very on brand for you too
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not quite know how to spell that yeah we probably look so silly they're like wow these two are literally like in
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healthcare and they're selling this virus from I've like always
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referred to it as phobic because of that obviously now I am very well aware of what coronavirus is but yeah it was
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always coveted in my head too yeah it's just also it was shorter almost like so
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long yeah foreign what did you do after then like what did
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you do after clinicals so my clinicals got cut off four weeks early which like
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was a very awkward conversation to have in job interviews when I was like yeah
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they're like tell me about your internship during covid and then they always ask did you complete the entire
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thing and I'm like no I did not I am not a dietitian I was kicked out because I was
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a student and luckily I only missed NICU
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and neonatal really I don't work with any babies I don't think I've ever planned to work
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with any babies so I think that rotation I like wanted to see it just because I
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feel like I knew nothing so I thought it would be cool but I don't know I miss
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both my weeks of Staff relief so so who used to say if I'm qualified to
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be a dietitian who's to say but yeah I had I most of my classes were
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online anyway so like oh that didn't change really at all but
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I forget did you did you walk at graduation I did not okay so for
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whatever reason this is a personal pet peeve of mine because I like being validated for what
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I do yeah benedictine's internship like they
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normally just have a little party at the end of their program and that's it
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I have a master's degree is what I would have said like I need more of their party I was like okay
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um so we didn't even have the party so it was like one of those like I'm very unceremonious
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turn in my last assessment closed your laptop yeah and close my laptop and I now am a master's degree
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yeah yeah it was very uneventful
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and I will not hold my sister to this because
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she does not owe me anything but she told me she's currently in she's
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currently in a doctorate program but she'll definitely get a masters at least and she told me that I can wear
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her master's Hood that's honestly all I wanted was the
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little Hood and a little picture I was like I did not get that I was like very upset
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because my program was finished in December right because it was a year and a half but everyone else who was two years in
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like because no I know like a rush and I was more familiar with the Illinois programs
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like brushes program had a ceremony in May of 2021
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and all those dietetic interns got to wear their hoods and everything and I
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was very jealous yeah yeah I didn't walk either but honestly I
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didn't care that's like not something I'm worried about I'm not the kind of person who even like I probably wouldn't have gone to graduation even if I could
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have kind of person to really care about that kind of stuff but same it was like a Wednesday or
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something I turned in my last assignment which for me
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I like had clinicals which I missed the very end of for staff relief and then my last rotation I was supposed to Shadow
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with a sports dietitian but I couldn't because it was at the same hospital system that my clinicals were and they
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were no longer taking interns at that point because of kovid and so um instead
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I spent the last I think it was like seven weeks or so
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from like April until May so yeah only like I guess four or six weeks until graduation
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um I was working on writing column articles I guess for what is the
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name of the thing I was doing it's like a nutrition care man oh sort of yeah but like for the state yeah
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so I was like writing articles on like Nutrition Therapy for I did like one on like HIV I did a lot of
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like research for like transplant therapy so I forgot all the information by now but I learned a lot about like
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organ transplants that was interesting but yeah I spent the last few weeks just like doing that which
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looking back I should have been more grateful for it because it's like exactly what I like to do is just be at home and like type any typing on my
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laptop I don't know why I didn't appreciate that more um but same I like finish my last assignment close my laptop and then I
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was a graduate and what was weird about my situation too was I actually got married right before covet happened so I
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was also navigating like all of that and Ross and I like went from being long distance to living together to covid
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where we like spent all of our time together for a while so that was very interesting
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very interesting um that's such an extreme switch yeah it
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was it was wild we were like long distance for what like five years and then we got married in November of 2019 and then
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March 2020 we were stuck together for like eight weeks straight so I'm pretty
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sure he got shut down from work too for a while so we were just there and we also got Finn during that time we got Finn oh yeah on February 20 I think it's
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the 29th was leap year February 29th of 2020 it's like right before
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that feels so long ago I know I feel like we've lost like two years of
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our life at least yeah because then I started working like actually before graduation so graduation
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weekend which I didn't go to but it was like early May and I started working my
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full-time clinical job outpatient like the week before that so they were
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like really needing someone so I started even before I was a graduate which I don't think is really allowed but I had
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to like get a note from my preceptor or my um internship director that I was like gonna graduate to like verify to my
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employer that I was good to go it was crazy you're okay yeah
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did you wait so you graduated 2020 May 20th yeah
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so you were were there like any restrictions from a work standpoint oh work was so I know
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this is supposed to be about the internship no but I don't know what to say about that I'm curious yeah so that was crazy
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so I worked at a outpatient clinic and there at that time along with
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me there were three other outpatient dietitians which is crazy now because I
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no longer work there but when I left recently there was like six or seven of us so it's just like growing like crazy
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but anyway there were three others plus me and one of them Amy shout out to Amy
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she was the only one who got stuck training me so everyone else was working from home for a while but she had to
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come into the office into the clinic and like it was just me and her and like a couple other staff members for like
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I don't even know maybe a couple months because Amanda I was on maternity leave so she was out and then the other one
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Jenna she was working from home so it's like literally just me and Amy for a while and a couple other members like
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front desk and like one of the Mas or something and then
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eventually everyone came back in but when I first started Amy and I were
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seeing patients like all virtually like either telephone or like video visits so I felt so bad for her because she was
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stuck like with me in the office and we were still doing virtual so she like very easily could have been a home so
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less bless her heart but then everyone came back and then of course we had to wear masks for I mean it wasn't until
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probably yeah maybe early this year that we finally
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lifted our Mass policy at the hospital inpatient and outpatient so it was it was weird for a while like
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I didn't know how to work without a mask for a while like it was it was pretty crazy and we
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still did some video visits but we finally allowed patients to come in I don't know exactly I wish I did but I
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think it was May June July it was probably around like thanksgiving-ish time of 2020
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and then at that point I know there was like weird Insurance stuff that was happening and so for a while they like
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banned us from doing video visits because Insurance like stopped covering them of course we're like why would you
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do that when people like are safer in their homes but whatever and so for a while like we weren't even
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allowed to do video visits but then that got changed as video became just like more popular I think insurances were
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like okay fine we'll adjust to the new world we're living in but yeah it was pretty crazy for a while
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when I first started it was literally like three of us in the office for a few months until everyone came back poor Amy
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had to come in they're Amy but we really bonded Amy and I are like good friends now because we had all that time like
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just the two of us when I first started that's true I feel like one of the biggest things we
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hear with the internship is like or not internship but the pandemic is like people who like students lack
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certain experience because of that and I was thinking about that and I was
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like I think the only rotations for myself
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that I missed out we're like Community yeah
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um I was able to do my long-term care what like I just had to like mask up and
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everything and that was near the end of 2020 so like they're kind of figuring out PP by then
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yeah um I don't know I feel like honestly I wouldn't say it was a lack of
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experience I feel like everyone's just mental health took a huge toll exactly like I didn't even do long-term care
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like I wasn't even like part of my plan so like I didn't miss out on that because of covet I missed out on that because it just wasn't something I was
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required to do and I feel like that is maybe a flaw with the internship process is that everyone's program is so
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different but at the same time I think that's good because
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there's so many fields of dietetics not everyone wants to do the exact same rotations so I think I don't think
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that's a valid excuse either to say like oh you're not a good candidate for this job because your internship was during
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covet and so you got less experience like it's also nine months to two years
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out of your entire career you're not gonna get all of the experience you need like that's so that's so minimal I have
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learned so much in the last like three years being an actual dietitian so much more than I ever learned
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obviously during my nine months as an intern pandemic or not yeah it feels very silly you know it's like I
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don't know it just seems like an excuse to like not hire people
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that's what it felt like I don't know Well you ended up working at one of the places you
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I got really loud like I literally I I knew my preceptor who is now my boss at
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the hospital and she basically was like there are these positions to apply for
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it was like um March or April I started applying and so then my preceptor like knew me and
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everything and so I was able to just get a job and get in like even before I graduated like I said so I got really lucky with that I know that's not
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everyone experience including yours yeah I think I just I don't think this
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speaks on the pandemic but it's just like frustrating how it doesn't count toward your experience
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how like they're like oh your internship doesn't literally like in job interviews it'll be like how many years of
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experience do you have and it'll be in parentheses here internship does not count toward this and I was like which
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is it like is it experience you need to have or does it not matter at all like pick a link yeah like what is this it's
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not like we are like shadowing we are legitimately like doing 40 hour weeks
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like on the floors yeah if but yeah it's
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it's just so annoying I'm glad I like also like looking for a job during the
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pandemic was awful I was like no one's hiring or
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everyone all the dietitians are changing positions because they're realizing the lack of like job security there is or
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how much they don't like it um or how poorly their employer is like handling covid whatever it is
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um but I'm just glad we're past that now I feel for anyone who like is looking
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for a job because that is just a terrible terrible terrible process
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that like first year after graduation like again I was I was lucky enough to have a job but even navigating just that
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time from going from being a student for your entire life to like working
25:08
it's so weird it's so different and like it is nice we
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don't have homework that is nice we just have other responsibilities that
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we have put on ourselves because that is Who We Are
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but it was like a really tough time and I feel like
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obviously it was like no like I don't know if I want to say Milestone it was like a very influential
25:40
event that everyone underwent and it brought up a lot of
25:45
concerns like mental health and like infection control the amount of people that don't know how to like wash their
25:52
hands correctly like stuff like that yeah like was good that it was brought up but
25:59
it was I don't it's like tough to look back on I'm glad we're out of it
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yeah I hope we never experienced that again I did see a tick tock recently it
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was like AI predictions of the decks like five years and they predicted another pandemic and I was like squirrel
26:17
squirrel denial denial we're gonna not make We're not gonna put that out and see Universe yeah but at least we're not
26:24
students anymore that was just so weird and I I wonder how it was for those like
26:30
starting College in 2020 I know that was a whole thing too like having to like start being a virtual student if you did
26:36
go to like somewhere like Purdue where you likely we're moving I just so weird
26:43
yeah I think my sister she graduated 20 and 22. so she started
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2018 then I think she like
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yes yes yes yes because she would be a freshman when I was a senior
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um she like lost a ton of her College time because of covid yeah and
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it like sucks a lot if you think about it that really sucks because that was like when we became friends like that's
27:16
like such a peak part of your life for so many people and you could have easily lost at least two years with the
27:21
pandemic because of it oh man sorry to be like talking about a sad subject guy
27:27
we need a happy story time we've done our failing a class we've done our depressing internships yeah next story
27:36
time will be happy it'll be good what is our next story time kind of curious
27:42
I'm do not need oh I think it's our season finale how we decided to become
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dietitians that's not good either that's when I had disordered cheating I was gonna say I
27:55
don't know about that that's great either that's okay we're just being real with you we'll
28:02
figure something out at least the next one after this oh the next episode after this one will be positive that one's fun
28:09
and then we're getting into should I spoil it yeah you can start sure I save it
28:15
you could spoil it okay after that we're gonna talk about our enneagrams and how in our profession or no no our
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unprofessional Enneagram opinions on like how disordered eating might correlate to the different Enneagram
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types again we are not any gram experts we are dietitians we're not any of them
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experts so that will just be our like own personal take on all that but that'll be fun something new for you
28:38
guys to hear about yes I don't know what else I have to add how are you feeling yeah I think that is
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all I really wanted to say reminiscing and maybe saying we feel you if you also went through a
28:52
similar experience you are seen and heard and understood yeah
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and we're glad you made it out and this will just hopefully
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always be a good experience you can go back on is whenever anyone's like when
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did you face adversity you can just say I completed my internship during the
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pandemic and then that's quite a lot of adversity you're facing well thanks for listening
29:22
guys to our very non-traditional career path that kovid
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decided to grow in US we hope you enjoyed today's Story Time
29:36
don't know if the next story time will be super positive we've got a long time
29:41
till then lots of positive stuff coming before then yes so will be good you'll have time decompress and take some slow
29:48
breaths still listening to this um definitely go
29:55
we're gonna go record the bonus question go listen to the beat Deeds I'm excited for
30:01
those epic for this bonus question a lot it'll be good you too all right guys we'll see you next week
The Beet Deets Bonus Segment
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