THE STORY OF MY DIETETIC COUNSELING

It’s the world hepatitis day peringkat Hospital Selayang last Friday. And of course, they ask dietitians to open up a dietetic consultation booth. Its only been about 2 months I’ve been working in Selayang Hospital, and they have organized several events that involved diet consultation. Last month was for Hari Tanpa Tembakau.

me and cik elly diet consultation for hari tanpa tembakau hosp selayang June 2011 -pix taken from ben's fb

Personally, I did enjoy give diet consultation to people, for I always love community programme. Perhaps for some people it seems lame or boring or tiring, but from my point of view, it is one of the best ways to convey and disseminate the message to the public –healthy eating. Ever since study time, whenever there is health exhibition programme, diet booth always win –I mean it always has the longest queue, and the same happened here. Sorry pharmacy booth ;) And I love seeing how eager ppl are to learn about diet yeay! ;)

long queue for diet consultation. see counseling kat sorang, yang lain pon nak dgr -pix taken from ben's fb

Looking back to the first person I ever counseled, I think it was during Medex’07 (Medical and Allied Health Sciences Exhibition in conjunction of Convest 2007 at IIUM Gombak). That was our very first community programme. We were in our second year. At first I was avoiding myself from counseling work, only did screening part (measure weight ht body fat bla2). I was not yet ready to give diet consultation. But witnessing few of my friends who were very good at counseling did trigger me. So I tried one –and yup I like it! And Diet booth won the best booth for the programme. Yeay again!!

When we started our clinical year, my group was first posted at Klinik Kesihatan Bandar Kuantan Bukit Sekilau. Bukit Sekilau Kuantan is a Chinese community (I think so, because there are lots of Chinese pt there). Thing about Chinese ppl in Kuantan is most of them speak Cantonese, neither Malay nor English. Hence diet counseling there is quite challenging. You have to simplify ur words but at the same time not to forgo important part of ur counseling. Its always funny to see how enthusiastic we became to ensure pt understand what we are saying. One of my friend when counseled those type of pt, she will transformed into a kindergarten teacher, as in counseled the pt like he/she is a kid. And yes I have flaws too. When I happened to have Chinese pt who doesn’t really understand Malay or English, I always speak loudly. Yup it’s a habit. Haha. Funneyh because my friends said they can hear my voice across the hall, and excuse me Ija they don’t understand Malay not deaf ;) Well among the so many patients that we’ve seen there, there is this uncle that I still remember clearly. Here goes:

Me: Uncle, bile ade kencing manis, buah pon kena hati2 makan. Sbb buah pon ade gula. Kita sarankan makan buah 2 kali sehari, tapi kena ikut saiz hidangan (yadda yadda and tell d pt serving size of fruits)

Uncle: Ooo itu mcm ya. Itu buah cempelak pon boleh makan lorr?

Me: Cempelak??? (after few seconds I got it –CEMPEDAK!). Oh itu cempelak pon boleh makan uncle, tp kalau nak makan sekali makan boleh makan 4 ulas saje, x boleh lebih nanti gula darah naik.

Uncle: 4 kecik itu??? Itu lekat kat tekak saja mehhh!!! ~and then we both laugh~

Haha incident uncle cempelak will be a story that I’ll remember forever… 

at KKBK Bukit sekilau, Kuantan. tp ni gmbr grp community, bkn clinical. -pix taken from mazu's fb

Anyway, giving diet consultation gives us a mixed of feeling, depending on the patient. There are ppl who really eager to listen to our advice and ask question, hence will bring smile to our face. There are ppl who don’t even bother to listen, thus we’ll be demotivated (hey u don’t want to help urself in the 1^st place so why shud we bother?). Sometimes there is pt that share secrets and ask for opinion. Tough huh, kena jadi counselor pulak. There are also arrogant ppl, that  are so full of themselves, think that they know everything, and question our qualification  to advice. These ppl? Increase BP mehh (attn: pt kakzam ;)).. There are also flirtatious, funny, sad, problematic, etc. Ada yang bila kita buat public diet consultation, kite consult sorang, yg lain berkerumun nak dgr sekali. Ada jugak  yg nak jodohkan kita dgn anak dia (lol), and many many more. 

But regardless of what type of patient they are, we, as dietitian, will try our best to give diet consultation appropriate to their health condition. Diet consultation is very individual, thus there is no exact script that we can memorize. Of course the guidelines is there, but still we have to build rapport and make sure the dietary changes that we want them to implement suit their life, not just syok2 sendiri. Because we want the dietary changes to be implemented for life, not only for few weeks prior to counseling and boom, relapse! 

Well, to end this story, a funny story during diet consultation Hari Tanpa Tembakau last month:

Miss A: Dik, akak ni, ada problem ni tau. Bila akak ketawa je, akak rase mcm semput. Rasa nak putus urat. Ada diet yang sesuai x dik untuk elak putus urat?

Me: Huhhh???? (monolog dalaman: what the hell diet putus urat???)

kite ngn kak elly hari tanpa tembakau -pix taken from kak elly's fb

 So fellow dietitian friends, if u read this, ada diet untuk putus urat x? lol!