Job Shadow

I job shadowed with Jodi Benson, a Registered Dietician in the Intensive Care Unit for the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. The company is Intermountain Healthcare and the UVRMC is located in Provo, Utah.

1. How does the time use vary? Are there busy and slow times or is the work activity fairly constant?

The census is pretty stable. I can work on case studies if the census is down a little bit. I use these studies to show dietary students. If the patient census is really low, I get called off and have to use PTO (paid time off). They record it as called time off though so I can keep my benefits, so that’s nice.

2. How did this type of work interest you and how did you get started?

When I was in college, I didn’t know what I wanted to major in. In researching different majors, I found that most of the classes in dietetics were things that I was interested in. I always thought I’d like to work in the medical field, but couldn’t stand bodily fluids so Nursing was out. But dietetics turned out to be my thing.

3. How did you get your job? What jobs and experiences have led you to your present position?

After I graduated, I was a preceptor at Utah State. I worked on-call and was hired to work with the students. I had done a 16 week internship program during my last year of college (Utah State includes it in their program) so that was good experience. I was hired by IHC about a year after I graduated and worked on a medical floor of the UVRMC as a dietician. Then a couple years later, there was an opening for a dietician in the ICU. I applied and got it, and have been working here ever since (18 years).

4. What are the most important personal satisfactions and dissatisfactions connected with your occupation?

Satisfactions: I get satisfaction in my job knowing that I’m helping people. I also love the relationship I have with the doctors and nurses, and the respect shown to me by my peers. I have been appreciated and respected more working here in acute care than previously on the medical floor.

Dissatisfactions: I don’t like the politics of Intermountain Healthcare. It has gotten to the point where they feel the need to “hold our hand” as we do our job. It bothers me that they control things now, like what we put as goals. There have been a lot of unneeded changes recently.

5. What are the various jobs in this field or organization?

You have SO many options. There are jobs for every aspect of dietary or nutrition that you can think of.

• Food industry jobs- working in restaurants or catering
• Community education- working in grocery stores, for WIC, working with Meals on Wheels, making meal plans for schools, doing food service
• Consulting for weight loss clinics, doing nutrition counseling or sports nutrition, helping those with eating disorders, making corporate wellness plans
• Research- you could research and/or write articles about all kinds of things (ex: better ways to feed your family, the benefits of eating blueberries, or how to modify recipes to make them healthier)
• Healthcare industry- dieticians are needed in long-term care facilities, assisted living, rehabilitation centers, and of course hospitals.

6. Do you find your job exciting or boring? Why?

I love my job! I love that new things happen all the time, especially here in the ICU. It’s a lot more exciting than working up on the medical floors. I love the opportunities I have to educate nursing students and staff about the importance and effects of good nutrition. I have been in the same department for 18 years and I’m not bored yet!

7. How does a person progress in your field? What is a typical career path in this field or organization?

I don’t really think there are opportunities for advancement in this field. There are lots of different career paths you can take…and you can change occupations if you get bored, but you can’t really “climb the ladder”. You can focus and certify in specific areas of nutrition, such as geriatrics or renal. You have to take so many continuing education classes every year and then re-certify every 5 years in order to have a current certification in any one area.

8. What were the keys to your career advancement? How did you get where you are and what are your long-range goals?

I was lucky to be able to come to the ICU with so little experience. I would like to go back to school to get my master’s degree in Corporate Wellness or become a Physician’s Assistant. My little boy is only 4 right now, so I can’t do that for a long time. My first priority is my family, which is why this job is so great. It’s a good career for a mom because I can do it part-time and the hours are very flexible.

I haven’t done a lot of research on Dietetics, but I learned a lot from the job shadow experience. Jodi’s career in dietetics doesn’t involve much interaction with patients, but other career options do. I didn’t know there were SO many options in this career field and they are all so very different. That would be good for me because I have a short attention span, so I worry that I will get bored in a career.

I’m still not sure if I’d like to pursue a career in dietetics. It would add on a couple more semesters to the two years I already have left. I feel like I need more information about the career in order to make a decision.