Week 5

Tuesday, April 24th:
    Today Francie came to speak to the class. She is currently the RD that is employed through WellWorks, which is a facility that emphasizes overall wellness. Optimal health is key, which means they strive to help an individual be in the best health they can be for who they are. They strive to provide the best wellness program for their customers. WellWorks is open to faculty/staff and their dependents, as well as community members, graduate students, corporate members and retired staff. Those that are members have a wide variety of services they can take advantage of, which include wellness coaching, cholesterol screenings, BP screenings, messages, body composition testing, nutrition counseling, and workouts with a personal training, just to name a few.
    WellWorks is funded by membership fees and from the OU wellness funds (Francie's salary comes from both as well). Francie is an integral factor of success of the wellness program. As a RD, she provides to date nutrition information, acts as a resource to staff, facilitates nutrition education and counseling, analyzes diets, and counsels disordered eating patients.



Thursday, April 26th:

     Today in class, Dr. Holben talked about the Ohio Board of Dietetics (the scheduled speaker was not present). The board oversees all things related to the dietetics licenses that a RD must have in order to practice. It is the mission of the board “to protect the public by regulating the practice of dietetics through licensure, and by fairly and consistently enforcing the laws and rules governing nutritional practices.” In order to receive the license, an individual has to first pass the RD exam. In addition, dietitians are required to do continuing education to ensure that they are keeping up with the to date health care practices. 

Ohio Board of Dietetics fun fact: Francie is currently on the board. 

Week 4

Tuesday, April 17th:
    Our first guest speaker came to class today. He was a representative from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). It is a program that assists those who do not have enough money to purchase food. They are sponsored by the USDA and they provide enough money to each individual to buy food for 3 weeks of each month. The government monitors the program planning, monitoring, and evaluations. At this time, there is not a nutrition professional that is involved with the program.
    He brought informational handouts that gave us a closer look into the numbers of each county in Ohio and the number of individuals that are food insecure. It was definitely eye opening.


Thursday, April 19th:
    Today we spoke about all the different agencies that are available for those in need. I really enjoyed learning about each agency and realized how much there is to offer. I think each of these programs was unique and they play a vital role. This also gave me a good idea of different career options down the road.

   

Week 3

Tuesday, April 10th:
      Today in class we spoke about health and nutrition policies and the laws that relate to them. One that I personally found interesting was the SNAP - supplemental nutrition assistance program, which distributes food stamps. One conversation about this program was directed towards the rules and regulations of the food stamps in comparison to WIC's program. I agree with the need to put regulations on what an individual can and cannot buy with the SNAP food stamps. On a personal note, my older sister is a single mom and she is on food stamps. However, when I take a look into what she buys with them, it is usually along the lines of snack and sweets. I remember going home one weekend and she had purchased cookies, chips, and a 7 layer mexican dip with her food stamps. Not the best choices and I didn't see the purchase as necessary. I think more rules/regulations do need to be implemented in the SNAP program.

Thursday, April 12th:
      In class today we watched a video about a Farmer's Market that was implemented to reduce the risk of disease. I thought the idea of the Farmer's Market being the intervention was a good idea. They were able to get a good location, which was across from a health center, and offer discounts/coupons for individuals that participated in the study. I didn't realize the availability of fruits and vegetables was something of concern, I just figured it was individuals choosing not to buy fresh fruits and vegetables that was the issue. I continue to learn a little more about food insecurity with each class.