dietitian online

Click here to go to my current active blog. (I am no longer posting on this site.)

I’ve added a new page, which you can access by clicking on the text next to the About pages. (All these pages are at the top, above the image header.)

Dietitians’ Practice Resources will be a never-completed work-in-progress, but it’s my attempt to collect, categorize, find,  retrieve, and of course, share resources using the minimum amount of time, space, and mental effort (as in trying to recall where I put that classic resource on subjective global assessment).

Dear reader: Please don’t feel obligated to read this post. I’ve written it mostly for myself to help keep my writing on track.

During May, I have written about and added links to web resources on:

• stroke
• sustainability
• evidence-based practice
• practice guidelines
• poster presentations

Topics in June will continue to be brought to you by the letters “p” and “s”. (Sorry, but this was the best unifying theme I could come up with!)

I plan to keep publishing on stroke, sustainability, and practice guidelines  as well as add posts and categories on professional prose (i.e.,  writing well) and web-based productivity tools for dietitians.

…on this blog that may help you (and me) find resources more quickly. The Dietitian’s Toolkit was getting a bit cluttered so I moved some items to two new categories, Evidence-Based Practice and Practice Guidelines.

As in “lions and tigers and bears–oh, my!” What am I getting into?

I usually operate at the level of activities, and when I’m really disciplined about planning, I will develop objectives. But a highly-respected blogging resource recommends giving careful thought to your blogging mission, values and vision. In other words: why are you blogging, what values guide your blogging and what do you hope to achieve with your blogging? I agree it’s wise to articulate these rather than assume your readership can determine them from what is and is not on your blog.

So here are my higher level statements:

Why am I blogging? (aka Mission)
To record and share resources.

What values guide my blogging?
1. Honesty and fairness in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. This includes acknowledging all sources and admitting mistakes and correcting them promptly. “Tell the truth.”
2. Respect for others’ opinions and feelings. “Don’t be mean.”
3. My professional association’s Code of Ethics, particularly “to support the advancement and dissemination of nutritional and related knowledge and skills.” “Share the wealth.”

What do I hope to achieve with this blog? (aka Vision)
(1) discovery and learning
(2) a stronger community of dietetic practice

I love this photo. I searched and searched for an image to depict people interacting– communicating, connecting and caring.

Image credit: Touch, a Creative Commons licensed photo by chrisevans on Flickr.

Writing a blog post encourages reflection much like recording thoughts in a journal.  Some considerations: Is the resource credible? Is the resource important? Can I apply the resource to my practice? Do I need to add it to my library? Is it potentially valuable to my colleagues or should I just bookmark it privately?

Image credit: The Journal , a Creative Commons licensed photo posted by Hobo pd on Flickr.

A blog can help you collect, organize, archive and retrieve web resources.

 Image credit: Portal, a Creative Commons licensed photo by Ange on Flickr)

Well, after a five-month hiatus, I’m going to try blogging again. I’ve saved many links in my Connotea library, which I am using and building on a regular basis. Connotea is one of the reasons I stopped blogging: I had created this blog to keep track of resources. Connotea does this much better than I could ever hope to do myself.

So, do I need to keep a blog?  Not sure.  Here’s the experiment. I will try to use the blog to record my opinions about and experiences with nutrition and evidence-based practice resources. It will be a (public)  record of some thinking and testing on my part….which may (I hope) make me evaluate more critically and choose tools based on how practical and pertinent they are to practice, rather than because they are the next new, pretty-to-look-at, fun-to-play with tech toy or Web 2.0 application.

When I come across new nutrition information that appears relevant to my practice, I tend to skim it, making a mental note “this is interesting; I will get back to it later when I have more time”…but more time never comes. 

I’m hoping that blogging about an article, question, issue, idea, tool or resource will compel me to look at the item mindfully in the moment: read, reflect, evaluate…and follow-up with action. Any nutrition-related item that appears to be useful, intriguing, well-designed and worth sharing will be published here. Just in case my colleagues might be interested.