An informational interview provides students with the opportunity to engage in conversation with professionals in their field of interest to gain greater insight into career possibilities. Conducting an informational interview is a critical step in the process of researching career options as it provides a better feel for what a career is really like and provides an opportunity to learn things not found anywhere else.
For this assignment, you will conduct an informational interview with a healthcare professional currently working in a career field you are considering or planning to pursue. Your interviewee may not be an immediate family member, and should not be one of your professors.
Informational Interview with a Healthcare Professional
Brief biographical information regarding the dietitians
The personnel which I have chosen for the interview is the renowned registered dietitians in the Charing Cross Hospital of the United States. She is a famous personality in the field of nutrition and food-related studies. She completed her graduation and masters from the renowned college of the United States in the stream of Food and clinical nutrition. After completing her master’s, she had taken a 1-year internship in a famous health organization, which aids in a better understanding of the theoretical knowledge in the practical field. Along with this, she has conducted many courses in the domain of metabolic diseases like diabetes Mellitus, hypertension, and renal diseases. After the completion of these courses, she got a job in a small health organization, where she had arranged for a personal chamber. As a result of the practices in the hospitals and the personal chambers, she was able to gain much knowledge and more information regarding the strategic patterns of counseling the patients and also to help them to cure their severe illnesses with the help of food and nutrition perspectives. While serving in the hospital and doing the personal chambers she also become associated with the International Council of Dietitians, and with collaborations of other experts, she was able to publish several enriched journals which also act as an important resource in the field of nutrition and dietetics. She is also associated with several educational institutions where she acts as a guest faculty. She is also a renowned name, for her association with many other social activities. After serving for five consecutive years she has now been designated as a registered dietitian and is a popular name in the arena of food and nutrition studies. She always motivates the new generations in pursuing the field of food and nutrition as this profession is related to the treatment of severe acute and chronic diseases with the help of the therapeutic properties of the natural food ingredient with no side effects.
Open-questionnaires:
A warm greeting was initiated from my side and a thank you greeting was also mentioned for arranging the time for the meeting.
1. Jean: Hello mam! I have a great interest in the field of nutrition and dietetics, but as a student, I don’t have much knowledge regarding this course. Would you assist me a little in gaining much knowledge regarding this field? As I also wish to be a registered dietician in the future.
Dt. Maira: Hello Jean. Thank you for your curiosity in the field of nutrition and dietetics. I must say you have made a wonderful choice by selecting to be a registered dietician. Before proceeding further, let me, give you a small overview of the job responsibilities of this profession. Food and nutrition are the branch of science and are highly associated with the medical field (Gould et al. 2019, p.25). If a patient is diagnosed with any disease and will go to the doctors, then the doctors will first diagnose the disease and then give the patient the suggestive remedies and the drugs for the treatment of the disease. The role of the nutritionist or the dietitians are somewhere the same but differ in only one perspective after the diagnosis of the disease the doctors will treat the patients with the help of medicines and drugs, whereas on the other hand, the dietitians will aid in the treatments of the patients with the therapeutic properties of the foodstuffs (Terblanche, 2019, p.25). Although it is also to be mentioned that, sometimes food also needs the contributions of drugs in the treatment of severe and complex diseases.
2. Jean: Share with us an overview of what a typical day on a job is like for you.
Dt. Maira: The job responsibility which is associated with this career field is the diagnosis of the patient’s diseases after conducting several clinical parameters. Once the disease had been diagnosed, the next operation is proving them with a therapeutic diet plan customized for every individual according to their age, sex, body weight, body mass, index, physiological conditions, diet history, and many more. Special one-to-one care has to be provided to the patients. A total of 8 working hours should be contributed to the patients within five working days and two days on weekends. Another thing I also want to mention is that, as this profession is related to the emergency medical field, dietitians are always associated with keeping the responsibilities of the patients.
3. Jean: The reason behind the persuasion of this career option.
Dt. Maira: I have had a huge interest in this field from childhood, as this helps us to enrich our knowledge regarding the contributions of nature, and food in the treatment of several diseases.
4. Jean: what experience should a person possess to get into this profession?
Dt. Maira: Too pressure the studies in food the dietetics a person has to undergo a graduation degree, a master’s degree associated minimum of five-year experience in serving the patients.
5. Jean: What are the specific job options within this career field?
Dt. Maira: This field is associated with several diverse career opportunities which include, Certified Nutrition Specialists, Dietetic Technicians, Clinical dieticians, Lifestyle coaches, Health coaches, Licensed Nutritionists, Holistic Nutritionists, sports nutritionists, registered dietitians, and many more.
6. Jean: What is the career growth of this profession?
Dt. Maira: Growth in any profession is highly dependent on the performance of the individual. Although in this field you will be able to enrich your knowledge every day, and your experience with be improved while serving the patient. If you are much dedicated to your profession, then this profession has a huge growth for success. She is also associated with several social activities and several seminars, camps, convocations, conferences, and many more. Getting an opportunity to interact with her makes me very fortunate although.
7. Jean: Internship is mandatory in this profession?
Dt. Maira: yes, an internship is mandatory in this profession, as practical experience in dealing with the patient is highly recommended here.
Briefly description of my experience after talking with her.
After speaking with the professionals in my chosen field, the career understanding which I have developed includes that, this is a diverse profession with a lot of possibilities and with also a huge rate of growth and career success. Not only that, but this is also a very enriched field as this is associated with the knowledge of treatments for patients with the help of the therapeutic properties of natural foodstuffs. Regular upgrading of the wisdom is possible here, as every day many research and relevant journal are published on this topic. One thing which I would also like to mention is that even now this can be considered a newly discovered career option, as much more work, research, and discoveries are yet to come in the future, about this job field.
The most useful piece of information which I took away from this conversation, includes that, this career is related to the motto of serving the patients. This has a high interrelation with the medical field, as this profession is related to the healthy living of the patients, and the responsibility and the satisfaction that is related to this profession are also very high. One thing which I also want to mention here is that this profession is also related to the life and death risk of the patient, therefore a huge dedication and sincerity towards the profession are mandatory.
The most surprising thing about this career is that, is how this profession is related to the implementation of natural resources in the treatment of severe and major chronic diseases. How with the help of natural diet habits we can able to exert a healthy lifestyle? Studies have shown that with the help of proper nutritional guidance and diet counseling, an individual can develop holistic development of the mind and the soul. Good health is related to the overall well-being of several domains like the physical, mental, social, emotional, cognitive, and many more. Proper diet counseling, and customized health guidance help in the development of all domains and helps the individual in the adoption of a healthy lifestyle to develop a balanced mind, body, and soul. Studies have shown that a balance between all these domains helps in the enrichment of productivity, social bonding, collaborative nature, and many more. The most important thing is that this profession deals with patients with no side effects, unlike medical drugs. The drugs may be associated with the fast recovery of the patients but it also has side effects, in this case, the treatments with food, exercise, and lifestyle management, help the person to get a wholesome recovery with no side effects, but this undergoes a comparatively slow process than the drug treatments.
Yes, I want to pursue this career path, because, I have developed an immense interest in this field. I must mention that after this coursework, I got a clear picture and guidance about all the doable things in this career. Before this, I was not sure about how to become efficient in this field, I must mention that this assignment helps me a lot in the development of huge in-depth knowledge in this field. Although this profession is highly related to huge practical operations, dealing with patients, medical emergencies, customized patient services, dedication of consistency, patience, and hard work is highly recommended. This will also help in the development of a huge knowledge regarding the food sources and their contributions towards the treatments of the disease. Although the treatment patterns are highly individualized and based on several factors like age, sex, height, weight, and many more. Therefore this profession is also associated with the highly challenging task, which also attracts me a lot in the future persuasion of this profession.
All the information which I have received from her side I must mention they are highly relevant. Before going for the interview I have gone through a little amount of the prevalent information regarding this profession. The major sources which I have used for the collection of the information are articles, newspapers, journals, scholarly publications, and many more. With the help of the knowledge which I have gone through before the interview, I can decide that all the information shared by the dietitians is very enriched and relevant to this professional field. I must admit that I am highly grateful for her contributions in this interview session as this helps me a lot in selecting my future career options. All the doubts and queries which I have regarding this profession have been very beautifully resolved with her shared knowledge.
The last thing, which I want to contribute is that this assignment is very much informative and an enriched source that helps in the persuasion of my career options. I am grateful to the dietitians and also to my professor as this inspires me a lot.
References:
Gould, V., Evans, E. W., Redmond, E., Marklinder, I., Quinlan, J., & Ilic, S. (2019). Exploring the role of dietitians in the delivery of food safety information.
Terblanche, E. (2019). The role of dietitians in critical care. Journal of the Intensive Care Society, 20(3), 255-257.
