Alanna Kloppman

• Work cooperatively and effectively under the direction of senior staff to deliver Dietetics and Food Services support to patients and families
• Operate within established procedures and guidelines to assist patients and carers with menu selection
• Oversee meal provision and dietary information management, including various allergies, dietary requirements and diet codes

• Worked alongside mentor and Paediatric Dietitian- Nicola Lawson to conduct comprehensive nutrition assessments for patients with diverse clinical concerns, including neuro divergency, poor weight gain, fussy eating, low iron and constipation
• Participated in patient-focused interventions to increase food variety and support desensitization for children with fussy eating behaviours
• Collaborated with the person in charge of social media at TLC to develop ideas into posts develop and curate social media content to enhance customer engagement and promote the importance of nutrition in achieving optimal health outcomes
• Private practice

• Provide education to newly diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes patients and their families.

Food 1:

• Meet with the patient and their family, collect a diet history, and explore current knowledge around food and diabetes
• Discuss the importance of eating a balanced diet and the role of CHO, fats and protein
• Provide education on label reading and being able to make better meal choices

Food 2:

• Assess understanding of topics previously covered and explore understanding of GI and CHO digestion
• Discuss hypoglycaemia treatment

Food 3:

• Introduce the concept of CHO counting for flexibility and to better manage blood glucose levels
• Educate and practice CHO counting with patients and families using patients’ common meals
• Discuss the degree of accuracy required for CHO counting dependent on the patient’s age
• Provide a food and carb diary for the family to fill in at home

Food 4:

• Review the patient’s food diary and ability to CHO count
• Introduce the concept of flexible insulin dosing and explain the CHO ratio and insulin sensitivity
• Set up an appropriate bolus calculator with the patient and family using the MyLife app including appropriate Insulin to CHO ratio’s and Insulin Sensitivity factor specific to patients age and insulin requirements

T1DM Clinic

• Attend -T1DM clinic with a multidisciplinary team (Endocrinologists, Diabetes nurse educators, social worker)
• Review patients’ pump data or CGM data to identify meal rises or delayed meal rises, discuss with the patient/ family what foods may be causing these high blood sugar readings and talk through dietary management strategies to optimise blood glucose control

• Researched the integration of a pictorial menu into the daily workflow, exploring optimal formats such as hardcopy or mobile device images
• Piloted the use of a pictorial menu with patients
• Collected input from key stakeholders, including staff and patients, regarding the effectiveness of the pictorial menu
• Established a streamlined system for updating the pictorial menu with new products defining storage locations for images
• Assessed the feasibility of implementing a pictorial menu at various Austin Health campuses, considering diverse food service systems at each site

• Adapted and worked in a range of clinical areas, including Intensive Care Unit (PICU), Type 1 Diabetes, Neurology, General Medicine, and General Outpatients
• Collaborated with patients and their families in a friendly manner to build rapport and utilised motivational interviewing skills
• Independently completed comprehensive clinical assessment and developed individualised nutritional interventions
• Gained valuable experience in creating individualised enteral feeding regimes
• Delivered nutritional education on high-energy and high-protein diets
• Educated patients and families on the role of carbohydrates for Type 1 diabetes patients and provided individualised carbohydrate meal service plans
• We collaborated and liaised with medical staff and multi-disciplinary teams, nursing staff and food service staff to achieve patient goals

• Exposed to a range of clinical areas, including Oncology, Type 2 Diabetes, CVD, Malnutrition, Aged care, Wound healing and Orthopaedics
• Conducted nutrition assessments with patients and organised reviews
• Developed and implemented nutrition interventions
• Delivered nutritional education on high-energy and high-protein diets and strategies for poor appetite and taste changes during chemotherapy and general healthy eating

• Successfully developed a planning document for a proposed program to improve the health literacy of food-insecure students
• The program included cooking classes run on campus to improve food literacy skills and an online resource accessible to all students to improve their knowledge related to nutrition, budgeting and food literacy
• Effectively collaborated with key stakeholders, including student union, staff members and students, through focus groups to gain valuable insights and perspectives
• Pitched our idea to various health departments and student unions, and we were granted $5,000 to commence our proposed program