Quality nutrition care, close to where you live

My name is Joseph Karemera, I am a clinical nutritionist. From the program that was led by a dietitian tackling NCDs, I learnt a lot of things that really increased my skills, where I learned how to manage NCD clusters, like diabetes, hypertension and obesity,

and also the program was really focusing on how you can take the patient through the health care system journey, where it was really showing us that you cannot work alone on the patient's health, and I also learned about the patient's information and data confidentiality, which was really a key in the program, and also how to document your patient's information, and also how you can... which labs you need to provide your care in, and also how you can monitor and evaluate your care using the labs.

One more thing that really touched my career is the nutrition care process, because it's the heart of the care, because it has a lot of things, and I learnt more about a lot of things which helped me to know the nutrition diagnosis, how you interpret the labs, how you inform your patients on the labs, and how you set the goals with your patients, and again how you put the patient at the center of the care, which is now... when you are still in school with others, that's really something that was missing when I compare with before.

I couldn't set goals with the patient, but when I finished the program, setting the goals with the patient, the patient also could see that, they really loved how I put them at the center of the care, how I show them where we are today, where we are going, and also how I could interpret their labs to them, and also their diagnosis that I found, because most of the time I would confuse nutritional diagnosis and medical diagnosis, but it has really now showed me the difference.

My message to my colleagues who are in the same career is that this program really can shape the care that they give to their patients, because NCDs are now escalating and there are few people that know how to manage those conditions, and where nutrition is a pillar, it is the first-line treatment and medication comes later on.

With this program you can learn how you can help your patients to meet their goals and meet their expectations, because they are frustrated, they need to know what they need, and also you need to be in good shape and equipped so that you can meet your patients' needs, and this program really is bringing those skills that we didn't cover in our schools and universities, that's what I can call for them, and they will get benefit from this program.