Author Archives: mphn

From John Spano: Nutrition and Wellness Education Symposium

1 Reply

 

Hi All,
I began my practicum in September 2013 and will carry it over into the spring semester. As a community college biology professor teaching nutrition, I wanted to focus my efforts on nutrition and college students. To that end my practicum will focus on a one day Nutrition and Wellness Education Symposium to be held on March 21, 2014. A needs analysis indicates that students are not only lacking in general nutritional knowledge, but are unclear as to the role nutrition plays in chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The educational symposium will serve to address those issues through scheduled speakers, informational tables and the screening of nutrition related documentaries. We currently have scheduled Patrick Stover, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and Josephine Connolly Schoonen, PhD, RD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Executive Director, Nutrition Division, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Director, Dietetic Internship Program. We are still in the process of firming up their presentation topics which will focus on the areas of the importance of nutrition education or nutrition and health related issues. We are also in discussion regarding a third speaker.

Work on the information tables is slow going with long delays in responses from potential participants. We will have tables for our documentaries, which currently are set to be “Forks over Knives” and “Genetic Roulette”. We are still awaiting licensing information from the producers. We will also be performing blood pressure screening through our nursing department and BMI analysis by current nutrition students. Our local branch of the Cornell Cooperative Extension has agreed to participate as well as the New York Chiropractic College School of Applied Clinical Nutrition Master’s program. We are also seeking participation for the local American Heart Association, American Cancer Society of Long Island and American Diabetes Association Long Island Chapter. There are many other potential participants in consideration.

We were off to a slow start since there was a tremendous amount of “red tape” in securing the space we wanted, which is quite large, for the date we wanted. We originally requested a date in April, which would provide plenty of time for planning. When all was said and done we finally got March 21. That cut approximately one month off of our planning time but it did position the event during National Nutrition Month, which was nice. The amount of coordination for an event of this size can be overwhelming. Fortunately, my site advisor, Professor Denise Deal, has a lot of experience with planning events such as this on our campus. Like myself, she is faculty member in the biology department, but she also serves as the advisor of our Biology Club, which currently has approximately 200 members. Denise has numerous contacts around campus and has been able to guide me through the detailed procedures to get things done.

My expectation is to have all speakers in place by the beginning of the spring semester as well as having all documentary licensing paperwork completed. I suspect that the informational tables will be a work in progress until the day of the event, but the more the better. We will obviously promote the event on campus and encourage our faculty to bring their classes, but we will also promote to other local colleges and universities. Also, since we are a “community” college, we will open it up to local community residents by promoting through various community organizations. We anticipate use of the college radio station and newspaper for promotion as well as the Long Island newspaper. That’s it for now! Hopefully things will move smoothly in the spring!
John Spano

Nutrition Science Research Group at NCI

1 Reply
Nutrition Science Research Group at the Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Insitute.

Currently, I am doing my practicum with this group. It is broken down to two parts: getting nurses involved with their nutritional webinars and writing a review of literature regarding this subject. It has been very challenging.

Jolie’s Practicum – Worksite Wellness

1 Reply
Hi Everyone,
I thought I would take the time to report in about my practicum experience thus far. I have been doing an eight week nutrition/fitness worksite wellness program at the school, Carrabassett Valley Academy, where I work. I have been learning a lot and really enjoying the experience. My supervisor is the school nurse and my mentor is the marketing director who previously worked as a wellness coach.The first thing that I did was a needs assessment. I gathered information from participants of the program before implementing any of the actual work that I have been doing. What I came to find was that of the 18 employees participating in the wellness group, about half of the group was joining in to learn, gather motivation and to be be inspired with the intent of weight loss. The other half was wanting sports nutrition information for performance related goals. I also have several participants that are involved specifically for disease prevention such as prevention of osteoporosis.

Another thing we initially offered were blood pressure checks during the first week to see if there were any red flags and also for those that wanted it as baseline information. I must say that the majority of the group that I am working with are healthy individuals, none the less, they all have had reason for participating.So what am I doing now, I have been sending a daily healthy tip/topic of the day via email. This has been fun. I have received a lot of positive feedback from this. The tips have been things such as inspirational quotes, recipe ideas, exercise suggestions, tips about specific nutrients, hydration and sleep as well as many other things.

I have lead weekly group walks, field workouts, yoga sessions and formed a running group. I have done two lunch and learns. One was on vitamins needs for athletes and the other was on the importance of breakfast, healthy snacks and wholesome dinners. We did a recipe swap at this lunch and learn which was a hit. I also have done two newsletters. One on sports nutrition and the other on eating for good health and the environment.

Lastly, I have been meeting with participants one-on-one to set goals, do measurements, weigh-ins and to discuss personal concerns regarding their nutrition. This has been quite an opportunity for me. I have really been enjoying this aspect of the practicum. To start the process, we used Fit Day as an online resource for tracking foods. I had everyone do a three day diet record. This was a great way for me to learn about each participant’s individual areas of concern as well as successes. Some have continued to use the tracking tool.

I have been impressed with the dedication of some of the participants and not so with others. One thing that I am learning is that it is difficult to keep participants motivated with sticking to their goals particularly in a work setting. I say this because the most common excuse that I am getting is that they have too much work to get to on any given day. This lesson has also been valuable.

All and all, I am very much enjoying my work experience and learning a lot. Please feel free to ask me questions or to comment.