Lilisha with participants
Participants at Work
Participants Learning

See where Dietitians Explore! has travelled and read about the adventures they’ve had!

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Where we’ve travelled:

Essen, Germany

Where could be better for our food-loving participants than a city in Germany whose name literally translates to ‘food’? Essen, a city tucked away in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is a bustling metropolis complemented by modern neighbourhoods, parks, trails and multi-cultural cuisine. The city has been shaped by its history in the iron, steel and coal industries. Former coal mines now attract visitors as a cultural performance centre and a UNESCO world heritage site.  Essen served as a great destination where participants had an opportunity to hop on a high-speed train and visit dietetic-centric hot spots.

Our participants had a busy and exciting week.  These were some of the program activities:

  • Orientation to the German Dietitian Association and the dietetic profession in Germany
  • Introduction to the eating habits and nutritional challenges of the German population
  • Visit to a German School for Dietitians, interaction with students and participation in students’ menu planning assignment review
  • Shadowing hospital food service staff; tour preparation, storage, and tray delivery
  • Tasting of a full hospital patient menu
  • Shadowing clinical dietitians in hospital, sampling enteral feeding supplements, meeting a patient with a feeding tube

Essen offered a variety of options for touring and site seeing. Here are some of the highlights in and around the city:

  • Museum Folkwang; a museum of 19th and 20th century art
  • Lake Baldeney
  • Old Town Kettwig
  • Villa Hugel Essen

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 Healthy Prepared Meals

Words from our participants:

The trip was a great opportunity for me to broaden my horizons and explore another country while seeking experiences in my interested field of nutrition and dietetics. It made me realize that cultural differences have a profound impact on communication and are important to be aware of. This is something I can apply to other life situations when I meet people from different places, but also in my future practice when I expect to see patients from various backgrounds 
Bonnie (Participant)

Katey and Friends at Train Station
Our trip to Germany was a trip I will never forget. I was able to combine my passion for nutrition with my passion for travel and gain invaluable experience. I have a high interest in clinical nutrition and visiting HELIOS Klinikum Krefeld Hospital reaffirmed this as we spoke with an oncology patient on enteral feeding; learned about a variety of enteral feeding formulas and oral supplements; and received a lesson on their malnutrition screening test. It was incredibly interesting to compare dietetic practices and nutrition education in Germany to that in Canada and to see how the dietetic profession is growing in Europe. 
Katey (Participant)

This experience has allowed me to step outside my comfort zone and has allowed me to gain the skills and awareness to work with individuals from a diverse background as a future clinician.”

As a DE! participant we were able to gain exposure to a wide variety of settings within nutrition such as clinical, food service, and research. Speaking with students at the local nutrition school was a wonderful opportunity to share our experiences and learn from each other, and were even given an opportunity to give them feed back on their menu planning assignments.

Jennifer (Participant)

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