Roll Up Your (Lab Coat) Sleeves and Jump In!
Hi readers! My name is Maria and I am one of the few interns placed in the Santa Barbara location (& loving it!). I am currently finishing up my fifth week in Food Service Management at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital (SBCH).
In this time, I have come to understand what great management looks like. Of six main managers in the nutrition department, I will work very closely with five of them, as well as the director. The managers speak with each other and with the director consistently throughout the day for advice, suggestions, innovations, etc. These are managers who I, as a dietetic intern, now admire immensely. Below I share the qualities that I have seen in each of them and how we, as dietetics professionals, should emulate these characteristics.
Food service managers must be:
Confident
On my first day, I walked into the kitchen at 6:45am (fashionably early) and asked one of the servers if he could tell Roman, the Certified Dietary Manager (CDM), that I was here. Roman swung his head around the shelf of tube feeding formulas and hurriedly said, “Maria, nice to see you. Hop on the line and tell the cook to fire all the numbers you see!” This is the moment in which you become a dietetics professional. You jump in and try your hardest to prove yourself in your role, no matter how comfortable (or not) you feel in it. Say “yes,” try, try again, fail, fail again, succeed. Make decisions and be confident in them. If later you realize it was the wrong decision, apologize, take accountability, and move on. Life goes on, but it doesn’t wait for you, so roll up your (lab coat) sleeves and jump in!
Adaptable
Jessica, the Culinary Dietitian, and I had just sat down to write the schedule when a diet technician rushed in to let us know that we were on “downtime.” This means that the diet office is unable to print any food tickets. All tickets must be written by hand and delivered to room service. Jessica swiftly notified all other managers that the system was down. The managers followed their “downtime” guidelines by adapting to their given role and re-thinking the production flow. Their ability to adjust made them immensely helpful during a stressful situation for the staff. The ability to embrace, not just accept, the learning curve associated with a new or different situation will make us stronger professionals in the field of dietetics. Additionally, it is important as an intern to learn from these situations. I encourage you to mobilize, ask if you can help, and take notes later on how you thought the situation was handled.
Relationship-Centered
In my first week, I was faced with the task of deciding how servers should be notified that the patient they are delivering to needs 1:1 feeding help from a nurse. To make the decision, it would be necessary to speak with the Speech Language Pathologists, Nurses, Culinary Dietitian, Clinical Nutrition Manager, and the CDM. The managers I’m working with have taught me that building relationships with all working parts of an organization is essential. This is true for interdisciplinary communication, as well as within the department. We cannot thrive in our field without building relationships. For example, I worked alongside the room service staff with great pride. I learned about their lives, had fun, and proved myself to them. Because of the time and effort I put in, they now trust me to be a resource for them at a more “managerial” level. Note: a smile, a wave, or a “good morning” is the very first start to building those relationships!
Transparent
Something so great about the way this rotation runs is that I will be an intern for four nutrition managers, each for two weeks. I get a truly in-depth look into how management operates on a day-to-day basis. They were transparent about touchy subjects and let me come to managers’ meetings, interview panels, performance appraisals, etc. In addition, management is also transparent with staff. This helps the staff feel more comfortable with and confident in their supervisors, because they are kept in the loop.
While the variety of management styles may be different, all of the managers at SBCH have proven to excel in their role because of their management qualities. This rotation has been a wonderfully eye-opening experience for me and, if you care to hear more, I encourage you to ask any questions in the comments section below!
Now, think of one of your best managers. What is a quality that he/she possessed that you will carry for a lifetime? Share these qualities below for other RDs2Be to take with them into their FSM rotation and beyond!