Some days you just have to laugh.....

As many of you know, I'm in the process of transitioning into a new (newish) job. Starting Monday I'll be the main dietitian for the Family Care Center. I'm also taking over all of the pulmonary rehab program, which I've slowly been in the process of over the last couple months. I will officially have full responsibility for that starting next week. I'll be leaving my research job so I can be a full-time dietitian. Yay!

One of the things I get to do with the pulmonary rehab progam is teach a three week nutrition class to all of the participants. Monday was my first opportunity to teach this class. It wasn't taught in the last couple months for some reason, so I never got the opportunity to sit in with the former dietitian to see how things normally went. I was a little nervous about that on Monday, but I love teaching and don't really have a problem with public speaking, so I figured it would be ok.

So I'm down in the clinic at 10:30 to start gathering up the participants for my class. That's where the trouble started.....nobody wanted to come!! Everybody moaned and complained about having to come to the class. What a great start, nobody wants to be there!! So then we finally get everyone gathered up into the classroom, only it's in one of those rooms that has a sliding divider down the middle. Normally it's not a problem, because whatever's happening on the other side is quiet enough not to matter. However, what happened to be occurring on the other side of the divider was a harmonica class!!! (It's designed to help patients learn breath control) Needless to say, that was a little distracting.

Ok- no problem, I'll just go on, things will be fine. So I start and one of the first questions I get is "You're a dietitian? Well why couldn't I get green beans when I ordered them when I was in the hospital two months ago???" Geez- I don't know!! This guy was "one of those patients." We have them occasionally in the inpatient world. Usually they are diabetic, and for whatever reason they have a hatred of dietitians. When they are in the hospital, they are put on a diabetic diet and so they get really upset when they can't order whatever food they want (usually tons of fried food and/or sweets). So he proceeds to make rude comments and ask ridiculous questions for the rest of the class. He was saying things like "Dietitians don't know anything. They need more training." Oh geez. I tried my best to just keep going and moving forward, but it was pretty bad.

Finally I was finished with the class and I was just thinking "I just want to go home." It wasn't so bad that I cried, but I was a little defeated. Really, I just had to laugh to myself about it- could it have gone any worse??!

Fortunately, we have since discussed this patient with the rest of the team and he won't be coming back to class anymore. Although I may get to work with him one-on-one.....oh joy!
Seriously, I never thought being a dietitian could make me an enemy to so many people!!

But really, I do love my job.....most days ;)