NIH Internship

 

 

 

 

 

I had the opportunity of being chosen as the sole intern for the Metabolic Unit, Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health.  I gained experience in research and clinical dietetics; here is a little bit about my experience: 

 

"I was hired as a Summer Research Intern in Biomedical Research working with Metabolic Clinical Registered Dietitians in the Metabolic Unit of the NIH Clinical Center.  This remarkable opportunity has enhanced my knowledge of clinical and research dietetics immensely.  I was given the ability to shadow a variety of dietitians in different units and gain more clinical experience by having close interaction with the patients.  Additionally, I worked with the research dietitians with gathering food records and anthropometric measurements, coding food records, analyzing data, and using many different databases and statistical analysis programs.  Furthermore, I was involved in many different projects, for example the Food Label Audit, which compared the NIH’s database to the USDA’s in order to figure out where they differed and if the NIH could change their database to the USDA’s database.  I then presented this information to the manager of the Metabolic Kitchen and numerous Administrative staff members to report my findings.  The biggest project I completed was developing a scientific poster with a paper titled, 'Comparing two skinfold equations to DXA to predict percent body fat among Africans.'  Presenting this poster to all of the NIH, has allowed to be gain verbal experience as well as interactions with high-ranking health-care professionals.   This experience in research and clinical has opened my mind to what dietitians can do with an RD, and has made me excited to join the emerging field of health."

 

If you would like to know more about my incredible experience, I have my journal entries that go into more detail, as well as my poster project and paper.