Four Crucial Skills to Develop for Your Internship by Britt Richardson

At this point in the year, if you’re applying to a dietetic internship, you’re probably busy with your DICAS application, personal statements, gathering recommendations, and the like. You also may be trying to imagine what the internship year is going to be like, what kind of experiences you’ll have, or what your preceptors will be like. If you’re anything like me, you think about this a lot and are crossing your fingers that your experiences match up to your hopes and dreams.

A year ago I was in your shoes. And since I now have hindsight on my side I want to share with you what the internship is really like and how it compares to my thoughts about it from a year ago. After four months of internship rotations, I have a bit of perspective on being an intern and how it measures up to my expectations. Most importantly, I can now identify quite clearly what skills I brought to the internship that are proving most useful as I complete my training. (Hint: it’s not calculating TPN!) The skills below have been crucial to internship success, so get ready to stuff them in your toolbox for the coming year.

Fluidity:

2020 was THE. WEIRDEST. TIME. to start an internship. From coordinating my cross country drive with the COVID outbreak map to avoid hotspots, to shifting to remote rotations I really wanted to do in person, this pandemic internship year has tested my ability to go with the flow. As I write this post, I’m not even living in California at the moment! I am back home in Vermont for a very extended period of remote rotations. So, yeah, you’ve got to adjust your expectations and detach from any firm ideas about how your internship will go. For those of us who like to have a plan, this is really very hard to do, but you’ll drive yourself crazy if you can’t shift and pivot over and over again.

Confidence:

Your internship is a time to show off your leadership skills, so even if it’s not in your nature to stand in front of a crowd, it’s time to put your fears aside and welcome the discomfort that comes with taking charge. This is the time to try new things, and luckily you’ll have a preceptor to give you feedback about how you did and how to improve for the next time.

For example, I imagined a scenario for my food service rotation in which I’d spend hours cutting onions or standing in a cooler counting pints of milk, and that was not at all the experience I had. Instead, I was expected to serve as a part of the management team from day one. How cool is that? It also meant I needed to bring my A game every day, be ready to lead meetings and employee training sessions or speak to managers and physicians about COVID research I conducted. I didn’t always express myself perfectly, but my preceptor was there to back me up and help me if I started to stumble. My point is, it was time to try, to stand up and address crowds of employees or doctors with confidence, knowing that I was the expert.

Curiosity:

Learning is everywhere in your internship - in the projects you’re assigned, in the people you work with, and in the science you’ll need to research to do the job. Keep an open mind through it all, and ask lots of questions. Even before you start your rotations, ask yourself, “what do I want to learn from this rotation?” Make your list of questions and address it with your preceptor on the first day. Your curiosity will make a positive impression and will let your preceptor know that you’re an engaged learner. And during your rotation continue to ask how and why things are done the way they’re done. You’ll leave with a much deeper understanding of the organization or process you’re a part of.

Adaptability:

You’ve spent your academic life honing your writing voice. You’ve gotten praise from professors for writing excellent papers in the perfect tone. Well, now it’s time to be a writing chameleon. Especially if you have rotations with RDs in private practice, you will be expected to ghostwrite for them, and the sooner you figure out how to replicate their voice in your writing, the more valuable and relevant your assignments will be to your preceptor. And you want to make a great impression, right?

To learn your preceptor’s style and voice, start by checking out their social accounts. Read what the preceptor has written, watch their videos, look at examples of their work to get a sense of who that person is, who the target clients are, and how they speak to them. You’ll be well on your way to wowing your new preceptor when you write a great blog post that replicates your preceptor’s language.

There are many more skills I’ve been pulling out of my toolbox on a daily basis, but these four stand out to me as the most instrumental to my success thus far in the internship. I hope you, too, can prepare your most confident, adaptable, curious self for your internship year and then go with the flow once you’re there!