Jaimie Lafferty, RD, CLC
Bachelor of Science in Dietetics | January 2016
University of Delaware Dietetic Internship | Class of 2017
Pre-Internship Employment
Prior to the start of my internship this fall, from December 29, 2015 to July 1, 2016 I was employed as a Diet Aide at a retirement community called White Horse Village. I was qualified to work in the Alzheimer’s/cognitive impairment resident dining area and the dining area that serves the majority of the residents with dysphagia. I prepared room trays for the residents who prefer to eat in their rooms, as well as serve the residents who eat in the dining areas.
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For purposes of confidentiality, the patient's name has been blotted out.
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About Me
I am a graduate of the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics.
I recently completed my Dietetic Internship through the University of Delaware in April 2017.
On June 21, 2017, I passed the Registered Dietitian exam and obtained my credentials as a Registered Dietitian.
While volunteering at Nemours, it was not uncommon for me to occasionally spend one to two hours interacting with a single patient. My patient interactions occurred either in their hospital room or the Child Life Center. Depending on the age level, the time is filled with activities, games, and/or conversation. Sometimes the nurses call down to have a child life volunteer sit with a patient while he/she eats to help motivate them to consume meals or to hold an infant whose parents are at work. The purpose of this time is to distract them from their current situation. I always made it a goal to find a common interest that allows me to relate to them. For example, I asked a patient what kind of tv shows he liked, and the child was excited that we both liked the same one. After telling another patient my goal of becoming a Registered Dietitian, she told me that the world needed more people like me who care about sick people. The patients really appreciated the time I spend with them. One patient wrote me a letter and left it in the Child Life Center because she wanted to make sure I knew how much fun she had with me the previous day. It's a very satisfying feeling to know that I have the ability to make the patients feel comfortable and at ease. I believe these stories and this letter are positive testimonies to the success I will have in dealing with future patients/clients.
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Pre-Internship Volunteer Experience
From January 2015 to the spring of 2016, I worked to explore the hospital setting over the past year as a volunteer in Child Life at Nemours/A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children. I have seen firsthand the importance that each health care staff member plays in patient treatment. The Child Life Center has allowed me to see the challenges and burdens that both the child and the parent endure while dealing with chronic illnesses.
Dietetic Internship
I completed my community rotation at the North Philadelphia WIC clinic. I did nutrition education with low-income pregnant and post-partum women with children. I also made folic acid the focus of my projects for this rotation.
I completed my elective rotation at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and worked closely with a transplant dietitian. It was an eye-opening experience seeing patients pre- and post-transplant, seeing a bit of inpatient work but primarily patients in the outpatient clinic. My project in this rotation focuses on kidney transplant patients.
I completed my food service management rotation at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, NJ. In this rotation, I was responsible for completing the weekly food safety audits, a customer satisfaction survey, and a project to enhance sustainability.
My clinical rotation was completed at Mercy Philadelphia Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. Under the supervision of dietitians in the department, I took part in nutrition screening for patients and used the Nutrition Care Process with ADIME documentation and provided nutrition education to individuals with a variety of different disease states.