I felt like I had to write a blog post on this topic of clinical dietetics, because it has been where I have been working for the last 9 years. Plus being in a hospital was not a place I thought I would be. For those of you that aren’t as familiar with the world of dietetics a vast number of RDs work at hospitals and are clinicians. These RDs see inpatients and outpatients and provide nutrition recommendations/education on various disease states. Throughout school you learn that there are variety of jobs and places where RDs can work, but you are prepared that you will most likely find yourself working at hospital, some where along the line. I didn’t think that was where I would end up, but now we are 9 years later and I found that I love NICU nutrition and I really hate not being in that specialty area.
I share this with you, because there are lots of RDs who are on the flip side of this coin and worked in clinical and hate it and are unhappy in that area. That is ok, but I wanted to take a moment and try to encourage/prepare you … if you are a RD who has found a specialty area that you love in clinical dietetics … don’t give up and fight like hell for that dream you have.
So let’s say you find that you enjoy working at a hospital. Lots of RDs enjoy working to care different types of patients in different areas of the hospital. You tend to have two groups of clinical RDs - adults and pediatrics. Then within those age groups you have different disease states where people start to specialize. Clinical dietetics managers are under pressure to staff these various areas of the hospital with the minimum number of staff possible, because helps the bottom line. So more often then not you are asked to cover multiple areas/units/or populations within the hospital. So you are pushed towards being a “jack of all trades” and that is ok for some people. For some of us that is not what we want. For some of us, we have very specific goals and aspirations. I wanted to write this post to push you to never stop fighting for that specific dream you have. If you have a niche and an area within dietetics you love … do everything you can to put yourself in that dream job. I was feeling compelled to write this, because I haven’t heard this enough. Instead I have heard “oh well I have to be flexible and do something else for awhile” or “you need to sometimes do things you didn’t originally expect” or “we all need to be part of the team.” And I do agree with those statements, but not when those statements are used to keep me from my clearly stated objective. I have worked too hard towards a specific goal to be derailed from that dream. So never apologize for having a passionate dream and knowing where you want to go. No one should make you feel that your drive should be something you apologize for, but instead should be harnessed to propel you forward.
With all that being said …if you find yourself working towards a dream you have (if it is in clinical dietetics or not) … never let anyone stand in your way. Go after that dream with all that you have and don’t let people who lack that drive make you feel bad for your desire to succeed.