Day 1

Today was our first day in the internship and I'm starting out with my first week in the Medi-Clinic. At the Medi-Clinic, I will be working with a dietitian who has her own private practice and works in the private sector. It is her job to ensure that the patients in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units are receiving the proper nutritional supplements to aid in their growth and healing. In order to do this, she calculates their energy needs based on their weight and health condition and then counsels the doctors about appropriate levels for liquid and protein supplementation. When a patient is being released from the hospital, she will then counsel the family on how to move forward.

After shadowing Vandghie, I shadowed one of her partners, Anna Marie, while she did the same nutrition counseling for adults in an intensive care unit and those who are part of an assisted living community. They both said that the rest of the week would be much of the same old thing.

However, I did have the opportunity to chat with both of them about different cultural practices in South Africa in comparison to those in the States. Vandghi and I talked about the differences between the public and private sectors in SA and how most people would not be able to afford the private sector without medical aid (something that is very similar to our health insurance). In terms of the public sector, the government subsidizes the facilities and as we may all assume, they are not in the best conditions.

While traveling to and from different hospitals, Anna Marie and I talked about the different cultural practices of Black South Africans. She was telling me how it is often a struggle to work in the public sector as a white woman because they don't always respect or believe in what she is telling them. For example, the Black community does not believe in birth control or family planning, so they will give birth to many children without the means of supporting them throughout their lives. In fact, many black men will impregnate a woman before marrying her to ensure that she is able to give birth to his children. Often times, these women will be left behind in the dust to raise the children on their own. It's really quite sad.

Anna Marie also told me about her research in breast feeding and how she's been reading the Healthy People 2020/2010 goals. I got really excited when I knew exactly what she was talking about--as a health promotion student, we discuss the Healthy People goals often. We also talked about the WHO and CDC. It was nice to have a conversation that didn't deal strictly with nutrition.