Placement as a Student Dietitian
My name is Laura, I’m a third-year student dietitian studying at Cardiff Metropolitan University, my course is one of the dietetic courses that’s condensed in to 3 years, which also means, I’m a final year student (eek!).
Our placements are randomly allocated across all hospitals in Wales, which, as you can imagine – Or if you can’t imagine, look at Google maps – is a rather large area to cover. Allocations sent me to the northwest coast of Ceredigion, in a seaside town called Aberystwyth, it has its charms, and it is stunning, but wow I miss Cardiff. As I’m writing this, I’m drawing to the end of my eight-week placement. This is my second (of three) placements and goodness me; I’ve come so far since the start of placement 1.
I’m not going to lie to anyone, placement is brutal. People fail placements, people drop out of placements and those who make it to the end are very ready to catch up on sleep. There is a lot of coursework to be done in the evenings and weekends whilst on placement to create the all-important portfolio that is proof of the progress and skills you’ve achieved whilst on placements. And with the days getting shorter, I’m finding it harder and harder to stay motivated – to go the library after being in the hospital 9-5 or to get out of a cosy bed on a Saturday morning to study, isn’t usually my ideal choice of enjoyment.
However, and this is a big however, placement is also one of the best experiences in my life, I’m finally wearing the scrubs and walking through a hospital like I’ve dreamed of, I’m speaking to patients, I have my own patients!! I’ve been able to spend time with the acute team, with the community team and with the public health team and it’s opened my eyes even wider to the broad scope of dietetics, and that gets me excited (and wondering how on earth I’ll choose a discipline to specialise in, but that’s not for me to worry about quite yet).
Placement is mentally draining, it’s fun, it’s a HUGE learning curve, and the constant supervision is tough. The second guessing yourself, the imposter syndrome, the looking for reassurance can become all-consuming if you’re not careful, but the deeper I delve into placement, the less this comes a problem, the supervision starts to decrease and the confidence starts to increase (I promise!), and eventually you realise people are trusting you and putting responsibility on you, and honestly, it feels kind of great.
I don’t want to scare you away, that is certainly not my aim, but I do want to warn you, because I wish someone had told me all of this at the very beginning of my first placement, so I had a slightly better idea of what I was about to face. The moving house (again), away from friends, and 120 miles away from Cardiff, the solo living, the days where Friday seems too far away. Placement IS great. But placement is hard.