BALANCE Week 1

Community/Elective Rotation – Week 1 Journal

Dates of rotation: (Monday) October 30, 2017 – (Friday) November 3, 2017

Location: BALANCE eating disorder treatment center

 

Activities & Assignments:

  • Assisted the Recovery Coaches for the entire rotation to set up for breakfast and lunch (measuring food and drinks, setting the table, and cleaning up).
  • Administrative assistant showed me Theranest which is the billing software that BALANCE uses. She showed me how to create a Superbill since they are an out-of-network provider which means that they do not bill directly to the insurance.
  • Spoke to RD (Therese) regarding my goals during my time at BALANCE.
  • My preceptor Liz Carrara who is the head RD, discussed the projects that I would be working on during my time there. Projects included the following:
    • CSAB – Webinars
    • Read: Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
    • Watch All of me and To the Bone
    • Working through Jess Setnick’s Bootcamp webinars.
    • Develop own lesson plan for nutrition group and co-lead on Week 2.
    • Literature Review re: Maintaining Vegan/Vegetarian through recovery – Pros/Cons – meta analysis of the evidence that is out there regarding this subject. The purpose of this lit review is to support what we are already doing, or collect evidence for an argument against it and no longer allow restrictive diets of any sort for our clients in recovery.
    • Various admin tasks
  • Joined the RD’s during their “RD Supervision” phone conference with Jess Setnick who is an expert in eating disorder nutrition. The RD’s consult with her regarding any issues with their clients and ask for guidance.
  • Joined the entire staff (RD’s, therapists, social workers, and administrative staff) for their weekly rounds. During this time, the patients are discussed, and information is shared between everyone so that everyone is on the same page regarding all their clients.  Client issues or concerns are also discussed.  Referrals to other health professionals are also discussed especially if clinicians agree that it would benefit the client’s needs. This meeting also addressed any employee issues or concerns regarding the working environment.
  • Continued to read Intuitive eating
  • Started CSAB Webinar: The Treatment Team Toolkit for Treating Eating Disorders, A Training for Nutritionists by Melainie Rogers MS RD CEDRD and Lynn Schultz LCSW CEDS.
  • Attended a Body Image Workshop ran by Body Positive Australia. The RD’s who led this workshop were Marci Evans MS, CEDRD-S (Massachusetts) & Fiona Sutherland, APD (Sydney).
  • Finished CSAB Webinar
  • Watched To the Bone and All of Me
  • Talked to Liz about weeks progress and possible topics for nutrition group lesson
  • Started Jessica Setnick – Eating Disorders Boot Camp — study materials
  • Started developing – nutrition group lesson plan (Topic: Body Image)

Comments / Thoughts / Challenges:

  • Interacting with the clients were tough in the beginning because they were very wary of new people. They especially do not like being observed because according to the RD, it makes them feel worse regarding their condition.
  • I had to be mindful of what I said or did because the clients had triggers and since I was new to BALANCE, I did not know the patients very well.
  • I have never had any experience dealing with eating disorders and it was really interesting learning about new nutrition concepts and approaches regarding eating disorders.
  • Attending the Body Image workshop was a little intimidating because I never really gave thought to the idea of body image before. All the RD’s and therapists who attended had a wealth of knowledge regarding this topic.  Marci and Fiona who ran the workshop were considered experts in this topic and it was great to hear them speak because it gave me really great insights regarding this topic.

Learning Objectives Met:

CRDN 2.6: Refer clients and patients to other professionals and services when needs are beyond individual scope of practice.

CRDN 2.11: Show cultural competence/sensitivity in interactions with clients, colleagues and staff.

CRDN 3.3: Demonstrate effective communications skills for clinical and customer services in a variety of formats and settings.

CRDN 3.4: Design, implement and evaluate presentations to a target audience.

CRDN 3.5: Develop nutrition education materials that are culturally and age appropriate and designed for the educational level of the audience.

CRDN 3.6: Use effective education and counseling skills to facilitate behavior change.

CRDN 3.7: Develop and deliver products, programs or services that promote consumer health, wellness and lifestyle management.

CRDN 3.8: Deliver respectful, science-based answers to client questions concerning emerging trends.

CRDN 4.1: Participate in management of human resources.

 Total Clock Hours: 36 hours and 15 minutes

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