A day of the Dietician (NVD, 26 November 2024)
This is a day of Merel Rijnen, student of the part-time Nutrition & Dietetics program at The Hague University of Applied SciencesThe Hague University of Applied Sciences. She had been a food technologist for years with her own company (Food Dynamics), when she was diagnosed with MS in 2022. For her reason to combine her passion for nutrition with health by starting the dietician training. She hopes to graduate as a dietician in January 2025.
My workday started…
This morning I got up at 7:10 am (without snooze). My husband had already left the house, so I had breakfast with my son (13 years old). After that, I drove to my internship at ABCdiëtistennetwerk in Breda, where I did 3 follow-up consultations independently. One of the clients suffers a lot from sleepwalking. She told me that she had discovered, that the sleepwalking decreases, when she makes her day and sleep rhythm more structured. Another client feels much calmer after the agreements we made earlier: no longer weighing herself every day and saying goodbye to an app on her phone that kept giving her advice about the number of carbohydrates. That makes me feel good!
My workplace is….
Varied. With my laptop and “armed” with a map of knowledge, I visit 3 different locations every week during my internship, including 2 GP practices in a collective building that also houses a physiotherapist. This ensures a great diversity of clients with different backgrounds, ages, illnesses and requests for help.
My agenda for this day consists of…
Follow-up consultations in the morning, after which I take an hour’s rest on the couch at home. In the afternoon I have contact with Nelleke Litjens from Newly Blend, about small adjustments to the viscosity of the range of tube feedings, which we have developed together. Earlier, during my training, we met and that led to an innovation project: the development of tube feeding based on high-quality and fresh ingredients – Blended Diet – suitable for people who are dependent on tube feeding. A very nice collaboration developed with the Network of Children’s Dietitians and samples are currently being tested throughout the Netherlands. The blends will be available to everyone in January 2025.
What I find fun/challenging about my work…
The variety of creating sample daily menus, calculating nutritional needs and the technological view on nutrition, collaborating with other disciplines, but above all putting the client’s health first and providing tailor-made solutions for them.
Today I was surprised by…
A question from a client: ‘Is forest fruit tea healthier than black tea?’ What to me is obvious nutritional knowledge, isn’t that obvious to someone else.
Terugkijkend op deze dag…
The start of my internship felt like a leap into the unknown! I was working (too) hard, but have learned to lean back a bit more and to mainly put the client to work. Today I realized that this saves me a lot of energy and that the clients also take more responsibility for their own health!
