Family or Marriage • General

Announcing Clever Dudette’s New Job

As some of you know, my wife Stacie is a dietitian at a major area hospital. What that means is she has been on the in-patient side of patient care for the last 5 or so years of her career. Well, today is the last day of her job!

A few months ago, she interviewed for two jobs: one with her current employer in an out-patient clinic and one with a federal agency. She was declined the position at the fed (there’s some long history with this one), but she was accepted for the outpatient dietitian position at the clinic (a new position for them).

She found out in mid-late December, and since this is a transfer within her same company, her current boss could keep her for up to 30 days. Well, this is the end of week number 5 and they’re finally letting her go. She starts her new job Monday at the clinic (a few miles from where she currently works).

I won’t say too much about the position or risk giving up her anonymity, but I will say this: it’s a position counseling kids with gut problems like celiac and crohns disease. While Stacie has already been counseling newly diagnosed patients in the hospital, she’s now going to work with them out in the “real world” where they no longer have the nurses, doctors or dietitians helping them through their disease or disorder.

Speaking for Stacie, I know she’s going to miss a number of aspects about her old job. For one, she’ll miss working in the pediatric oncology unit (kids with cancer). These patients stay for months at a time, so the hospital staff grows attached to each kid. Sadly, they also have to see many pass away, and it never gets easier. She’ll also miss working in the NICU with the teeny tiny babies (contrary to our sentiments about having kids right now, we do enjoy babies and kids. We just like giving them back sometimes).

But there are things she won’t miss like food service issues. She won’t have to track down a missing food tray or pass complaints about the cold peas to management. She’ll now get to spend a majority of her time talking with clients and creating educational materials, and hopefully writing more for Building Nutrition (now that she’s dealing with real food, not IVs and tube-feedings).

And my own hope for this job change is that she’ll gain the skills and experience she needs to launch her own consultation business where she can work out of the home (and make more money). She enjoys setting her own schedule, but needs an extra push to get into managing her own business. This change might just create the momentum she needs to become her own boss.

So let’s all congratulate Stacie on her new job!