Lauren Hoover

KNH 103 B
Dietitian Job Shadow

I shadowed Laura Szekely who is a Nutrition Services Supervisor at Akron
Childrens Hospital system. She oversees administrative responsibilities related to
the Neonatal Nutrition Service line. Additional responsibilities include direct
clinical care and provision of Medical Nutrition Therapy to neonates and other
individuals, clinical research, quality improvement projects, and publications and
development of nutrition to Electronic Health Record. Currently she is also involved
in a project related to a new Milk Lab that prepares infant formulas and breast milk.
Mrs. Szekelys educational background included a four-year undergraduate
degree (BS) in Nutrition and Dietetics from Miami University. She also completed a
Dietetic Internship and Master of Science degree in Clinical Nutrition from the
University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has worked on staff at Akron Childrens
Hospital for 19 years. Prior to this she worked as a Clinical Dietitian at Rainbow
Babies and Childrens Hospital for 8.5 years. She also had some additional work
experience, which included being a Medical Food Rep for company manufacturing
specialty formulas for Metabolic Disorders, working in Maternal and Child Health
Fellowship in Adolescent Medicine with teen moms. Currently she provides pre-
professional training to nutrition, nursing, and medical students. Additionally, she
has pursued additional training in Nutrition Informatics.
Laura Szekely did express some challenges she experiences in her job as well.
She said the most challenging aspect was maintaining flexibility to accommodate
ever-changing needs that involve expanding service lines, advancing technology,
staffing, and severity of illness. Also, she expressed how staff at newly acquired
sites practice differently which sometimes becomes difficult when trying to agree on
one common approach and also communicating effectively. And lastly, she said that
communicating with families and staff from a variety of backgrounds when the level
of accuracy and detail in understanding is of great importance.
Despite these challenges, Laura expressed this job as a very rewarding one.
She likes being a member of a team, being able to improve the quality of life of the
smallest and most fragile of infants and their families, and also being able to
research and improve the quality of care for mothers and babies. She enjoys
research and publishing to incorporate clinical care, and administrative and
educational responsibilities in one position. As an experienced, respected woman,
she has gained flexibility in her position to be able to accommodate her outside
family responsibilities, which she really enjoys. Although she loves her job, there
are a few things she does dislike. She does not like the feeling that there are not
enough hours in one day. Job stress increases for her when asked to do more with
less and feeling like you cannot always do your best because there is not enough
time.
While in her current position, she feels that she draws from a variety of
aspects of her educational background, while still continuing to learn new skills on a
daily basis. She feels like she was prepared very well from her undergraduate and
graduate education for the field on medicine. She obtained skills such as effective
communication skills, cross-cultural experiences, the ability to embrace change, and
open-mindedness which are essential to her everyday work. Once she decided what
she wanted to do, she knew she needed to obtain a Masters degree, and she found
that having a good mentor made a huge difference in guiding her with opportunities,
especially with her passion if pediatrics.
Laura Szekely said she feels very fortunate and loves her current position.
However, she feels that it would be nice to have additional staff to allow for the
pursuit of additional research opportunities. She also shared with me some current
trends in the clinical dietetics field related to pediatrics. She said there has been an
increase in efforts in Nutrition Education involving weight management, technology
with learning, and disease management. Also she said there are many opportunities
in research related to feeding premature infants and developing better nutrition
practices. Synthetic diets, enzyme replacement therapy, and many other
developments are currently pretty popular. New technology in communicating
nutrition education and clinical care is constantly evolving with patients, families,
and faculty. The evolution of the electronic health record requires a greater need
for dietitians in informatics to help define and develop nutrition friendly tools.
Currently, additional certifications add no benefit for Laura at this time
beyond maintaining Dietetic Registration and Licensure. There are certifications
that exist in Nutrition Support, Renal, Pediatrics, Diabetes, etc., and she has acquired
the knowledge base, but has not sat for the exams. She says that continuing
education opportunities are endless and well supported. Professional networks are
essential to networking, and providing opportunities for leadership and mentoring.
In the past, she has been the Chair of the Pediatric Nutrition Practice Group of the
American Dietetic Association, and also the Newsletter Editor and PR Chair for the
American Dietetic Association. Currently, she is the President Elect for the Advisory
Board of the Nutrition and Dietetics Program at the University of Akron. She feels
that participation in local, state and national organizations helps to further career
advancement opportunities.
From this experience I feel that I have learned a lot of valuable information. I
learned how you can always work to advance your career and continue to obtain
more certifications, education, and job titles. I really enjoyed hearing about her
daily duties and the new developments in this field. I am very interested in
Pediatrics, and I learned a lot about this area and the various opportunities involved
in it. I also think that it was great how she had a mentor that really gave her many
opportunities, and I hope that I can establish a relationship with someone that can
help me in the same way. I really enjoyed this experience and will use the
information I learned a lot in my future.