Three things I have learnt in mentoring students

Earlier this year I spent 7 weeks mentoring 4 dietetic student through their public health placement as their Accredited Practising Dietitian supervisor.

We talked about the project and their goals most days of the 7 weeks and I learnt a lot from them along the way. It has reminded me about the importance of a diverse workplace and how people from different ages and stages bring unique skills, ideas and approaches.

While I taught them the dietetic judgement, public health and research skills that they will use in their new careers I also have three takeaways I learnt from the students.

1.     Fresh writing style – I love the way the students write, with their eyes fresh to the topic they cover broader context and it makes you think about things differently. This included a more generous introduction to reports where they referenced global literature and public health frameworks which helped to contextualise why the topic is important rather than diving right in. Let’s have more of it!

2.     We covered everything - The end of your dietetics training is a unique time when you have insights to all aspects of the field, which narrow as you develop your career. We chatted about tube feeding, diabetes, private practice, food service, food safety, research methods, Indigenous health, children’s nutrition and of course public health. It has reminded how many interesting sub-fields of dietetics there are. It is an exciting time of decision making as students decide which direction to take.

3.     The students visual resources are beautiful. We could all benefit from CPD sessions where our newest colleagues teach us how to make nice-to-look-at presentations, graphs, booklets and activity packs. I’ve learnt from the students about Canva and Mentimeter functions I didn’t know where there and will now be using them myself.