Paige Harris And Why I’m No Longer Pursuing a Degree in Dietetics
The healthcare system is broken. But I bet I didn’t need to tell you that.
The United States spends more than any other developed country on its healthcare system, hitting $3.65 trillion in 2018. But despite this, we still have very poor health outcomes. When you compare our amenable mortality rates with those of similarly developed countries (like the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, or Germany), we come up very short.
In other words, people die in the US from “amenable” causes (ones that should be prevented or cured by modern medicine) more often than they do in other developed countries.
Now I know there are a TON of factors that go into healthcare spending, but I wanted to tell you guys a little about the side of healthcare I got to experience over the last few months: the food system.
My Experience
From August until the middle of November, I was as a Food Service Worker at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. I had two main tasks:
- Assemble patients’ meal trays.
- Deliver patients’ meal trays up to their rooms.
And for about three months, I did just that. At first the job was really overwhelming. There were so many different acronyms to learn and so much of the job was fast paced. It was like a really hard level on a video game.
But with time, it became easier. I didn’t have to spend as much time focusing on reading the meal tickets to assemble trays. It became second nature. And I didn’t spend as much time figuring out the different codes of the hospital wings during delivery.
I had time to start noticing other things.
First, I started paying more attention to the food. The hospital tries to give a variety of options when it comes to meals. They make a special that rotates day to day. You’re always able to order marinated chicken breast or fish, some sort of rice or potato, and some type of vegetable. Sounds pretty healthy, right?
The thing was, not that many people ordered those things. They usually chose to order other kinds of foods from the hospital’s hot food bar: French fries, made-to-order personal pizzas, cheeseburgers, or personal pot pies.
And then came the cold food. Sure, you could order plates of fruit and cottage cheese or sandwiches packed with veggies, but that wasn’t the norm. Instead, it was mostly puddings, gelatin desserts, sugary yogurts, chocolate milk, cereals, even soft-serve ice cream, cinnamon rolls, three kinds of cookies, cheesecake, and frozen apple pie.
In a hospital.
In a place where — in theory — you find yourself because you’re sick, injured, or trying to recover from surgery.
In a place where you need to nourish yourself with the best types of foods possible so that your body can heal.
Instead, you’re eating pie for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and soft serve for dinner.
I delivered French toast with whipped cream and 6 packs of syrup to patients in the cardiovascular intensive care unit. I watched the nurses carry in the food and not bat an eye. (And the “syrup” wasn’t even maple syrup, it was the weird corn syrup stuff.)
I delivered soft serve ice cream, cookies, and slices of frozen pie to diabetics. We had to ask the attending nurse before going in with the tray, but only to make sure that a blood sugar was taken. As long as it was, the patients seemed free to eat whatever they wanted.
One thing to note before I continue: In no way am I saying that the cooks, food workers, nurses, etc. are to blame for any of this. They’re doing their job as they’re instructed to do, just like the rest of us.
I can’t blame any one person for how the food system is failing patients.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t problems that need to be addressed. And that the current system has to change if we want to solve them.
When I first moved to Iowa City, I fully intended to pursue a master’s degree in dietetics. In my mind, that was the way to fix the problems that I saw in healthcare. I thought that if I were a dietitian, I’d be able to get into the system and start to change it.
But of course, reality set in.
I met a few dietetics students during my time at the hospital, and some of the stories they had about their time on the floor made me sad. That sounds ridiculous, but I honestly can’t think of a better way to put it.
They told me about how they would go up on the floor and talk with patients experiencing heart failure. They were supposed to guide them toward healthier food choices to help them live longer lives, but none of them wanted to listen. They wanted to stay rooted in their own habits, and the hospital’s food system allowed them to do that.
Now, I fully believe that food can help and even heal people suffering from chronic diseases and illnesses.
But after spending the last few months working in the hospital, it’s evident to me “traditional” healthcare doesn’t believe that.
When you take that fact and then add up all of the time and money it would take for me to go back to school to become a Registered Dietitian, it starts to not make too much sense.
I would have to become an RD if I wanted to work at a hospital, or in local government, or in a school. I would also need a degree if I wanted to change the system from the inside. And don’t get me wrong, we need strong RDs to do that! But since I’ve seen that side of the system, I’ve realized now that I really don’t want to be a part of it.
I believe that I can do more good in the world by working outside of the system. And I don’t need a fancy degree to be able to do that.
I’m a NASM-certified personal trainer. I teach people how to move in ways that make their body feel its best. If you’re local to Iowa City, you can sign up to work with me!
I’m a real food recipe creator. You can find so many recipes for healthy dishes and treats here on the blog and on my IG. And there are so many more coming soon!
I’m a holistic health coach. I want to help you learn to use food and exercise to nourish and heal your body. You can go to this page to find out more.
I learned a lot from my experience at the hospital. But the biggest lesson I learned is that I have the ability to create change in people’s lives without personally using it.
If you got to the bottom of this, great job! Thank you for reading, and be sure to like and share and follow along. Good things are finally being set in motion here, and you’ll want to be around to see them!
