I must begrudgingly say I feel like a slacker.  I have had a conceptual plan for my practicum for months.  However, it is slow in coming to fruition.  I also admit that my personal and professional lives are interfering with my academic progression.  Additionally, my attempts to meet with my community mentor have been sidelined by illnesses, family set-backs, and holidays.  I was supposed to meet with my preceptor yesterday and start my progress this weekend; however, that meeting has been pushed back to early next week.  So at this point I am anxious to begin, nervous I’ll fall behind, and unsure of how this will all play out.   But, despite my worries, I do think it will be a great experience and I look foward to actually starting the process!

So what exactly am I doing for my practicum?  I teach group fitness classes at the local YWCA and have been asked – as a dietitian – to speak at numerous YWCA functions on nutrition.  The YWCA also has a national program called Encore, which is a fitness and support program for breast cancer survivors (active or in remission).  Therefore, they’d like me to lend my expertise and assistance with some of their programs.  The staff is interested in collecting data to better assess the effectiveness of the program and to provide efficacy data for future solicitations of funding from various donors.  Therefore, my role will be to assist in the data collection and the evaluation and interpretation of the findings.  We will also include nutrition parameters and survey the YWCA membership at large to see if offering nutritional services (such as education, counseling, public health activities), whether as part of the Encore program or as a service to the community, is a viable option for the YWCA.  In essence, I will be completing a nutrition needs assessment of the YWCA membership and then the Encore members.  The ultimate goal is to provide evidence of a need for nutritional services in the general and Encore memberships that is consistent with the their  mission and then advocate for a strong nutrition presence in the Y’s programming and community outreach initiatives. 

Here’s hoping next week is more productive than the past!