Janae also recently completed her School Food Service/Child Nutrition Program rotation at Judson Independent School District as a requirement of the Dietetic Internship at the Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas. Janae's target audience was a 2nd grade class. She discussed the drawbacks of drinking High Energy Drinks such as: not suitable as a fluid replacement, reports of deaths from caffeine toxicity, high blood pressure, tachycardia, headaches, and other side effects. Janae compared and contrasted the caffeine levels of different beverages to the High Energy Drinks. She also encouraged the students to drink milk, water, Gatorade, or juice (100% juice) in place of the High Energy beverages. Janae stated, "I was surprised at how many children raised their hands when I asked if they drank energy drinks". Great Job Janae!

As a requirement for the Dietetic Internship at the Baptist Health System, each intern is required to execute an educational class during their School Food Service/Child Nutrition Program rotation. The intern completes this rotation at the Judson Independent School District. Amanda presented a creative lesson on the heart. She first presented and handed out a picture of the heart and discussed how the blood follows through the heart. Then she went over the information again using a question and answer format. She also put key terms on the back of each heart, so that everyone had a chance to give an answer even if they did not like speaking in front of an audience. "Most kids could answer almost every question," remarked Amanda. She also discussed the benefits of exercise and eating fruits and vegetables. At the end, Amanda had a question & answer period. She said that the kids wanted to know if eating out was healthy and if Subway was healthy. The kids, trying to be sneaky, also asked some questions they already knew the answer to, but Amanda picked up on that. Good job Amanda!

Approximately every 4 months, the Baptist Health System leaders come together to participate in a Leadership Development Institute (LDI). This is an opportunity for leadership development and learning on such topics as employee engagement, staff recruitment/retention, and quality. The LDI experience is two consecutive days. The interns participate in planning and executing the catering needs for those two days (breakfast, lunch, and two snacks). The experience is rewarding, but exhausting. The interns received high kudos on their performance! Way to go! 

Maria, Roxanne, Christina (Registered Dietitian, NCB), Emily, Debbie (Sysco SA), Ivan (Caterer, NCB), and David (Director Food and Nutrition, NCB)

­­­­­­­­­­As a requirement of the curriculum for the Dietetic Internship at the Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas, each intern is expected to present a Journal Club article. What does this entail?  The interns must first select an article from a referred journal. The article can be on almost any topic of interest to the intern. Approval of their current Preceptor and the Dietetic Internship Director must also be obtained. Then the intern presents their article (following a required format) to the group of invited participants (System Dietitians, Community Preceptors, and other interns).  Maria completed her Journal Club in October. Her article was titled:  “The Food Insecurity—Obesity Paradox: A Review of the Literature and the Role of Food Stamps May Play” from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Maria did a great job in presenting this article as well as leading the group in a question/answer period. This assignment is a pass/fail assignment and each intern is evaluated by all of the participants utilizing a grading rubric. The grading rubrics are transparent so that each interns is aware of how they will be evaluated.

Anne Geiger, one of our preceptors from Northeast Baptist Hospital, celebrated a milestone birthday in October.  She loves working with the interns and has developed very strong ties with each and every one of the interns.  So much so, that she invited everyone to her birthday party.  This was a great time for all of us to un-wind and spend time together getting to know each other "out of the work" environment.  I think we all had a great time!

First row:  Emily, Anne, Amanda, Laurin
Second row:  Maria, Roxanne, Kevin H.
Third row:  Kevin L.
missing:  Janae and Tracey

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a potential intern applicant to our dietetic program. This individual contacted me to see if she would be able to set up an appointment to meet and discuss the program. During our visit, the potential candidate was able to ask me questions that she had prepared in advance. The potential intern met with one of our current Baptist Health System interns. They spent about an hour together discussing all aspects of the program.The potential applicant liked the fact that she was able to speak to someone who has first-hand experience of the program.

I welcome all interns interested to call me at 210.297.7649 if they wish to set up an appointment to visit our program. I have one request . . .please come prepared with appropriate questions to ask me!

While in her Management/Leadership rotation at the Baptist Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, Janae completed a department in-service to the staff of the Food and Nutrition Department. Janae was responsible for the creation, implementation, and execution of the update to the FANS staff. Janae provided information on all six Pillars of Excellence:Finance, Growth, Quality, Community, Service, and People. The majority of the in-service was dedicated to Janae reviewing the results of the Gallop Q12® Employee Satisfaction Survey and development of the Impact Plan for the FANS department. Excellent job Janae!

Laurin has also recently completed her week experience at the School Food Service Department (aka Child Nutrition Program) at Judson Independent
School District. During Laurin’s experience, she taught a class to 3rd grade physical education students. Laurin cut out pictures of high Vitamin C foods and low Vitamin C foods. The students were lined up in teams and they would then run down to the table and pick out a high vitamin c food and show it to the judge. Then the student would have to run back to tag the next student.  Laurin’s preceptor stated:  “Laurin did a great job and the kids loved her game!”. 

Awesome job Laurin!

Within the Management/Leadership rotation, interns are expected to create & develop, implement, and execute a "Theme Meal". Janae is completing her Management/Leadership rotation within the Food & Nutrition Services Department at Baptist Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. 

Janae's Theme Meal was an "Stir Fry Asian Style". Janae offered a specialty bar (similiar to an action station) to the employees of the Baptist Medical Center. Janae served approximately 100 employees in about a 2.5 hour timeframe. Janae was also responsible for providing the ambiance of the Asian theme in the cafeteria/dining room. Janae created a center piece which decorated the main condiment station as well as hung Chinese lanterns from the ceiling. It looked very nice and was very well executed. The staff enjoyed the "Stir Fry Asian Style". Great job Janae!

At the Baptist Health System Dietetic Internship in San Antonio, Texas, interns complete a week long supervised practice experience at the School Food Service Department (aka Child Nutrition Program) at Judson Independent School District (JISD). One of the various projects that the intern completes at this rotation is to execute one nutrition education class to a target audience. Interns must choose a target audience (with preceptor input), complete the learning objectives and determine class content, conduct the nutrition class, evaluate the learning of the participants, discuss the outcomes with the preceptor, and complete a self evaluation. WOW, what a great project!

During Tracey's supervised practice experience at JISD, she taught a class to  5th grade physical education students. Tracey discussed how different food components impact our health.Tracey utilized a color wheel to encourage the students to eat a "rainbow" of food in their choices of fruits & vegetables. 

Tracey also said the following about her experiences at JISD:
"I really loved the school food service rotation. I had so much fun! Sharon is great and very organized. I told her that I was really overwhelmed at the beginning but because she was so organized it turned out to be really fun."