Christabel Eyram Cobblah, a second-year BSc Dietetics student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST), has described her clinical internship experience at the KNUST Hospital as an enlightening journey that deepened her understanding of clinical dietetics and professional healthcare practice.

Before beginning her 10-week clinical attachment at the hospital, Christabel said she had mixed expectations, influenced by common perceptions that interns are often assigned errands rather than meaningful professional responsibilities.

“So, my expectations as I was going to the hospital setting for my internship was kind of mixed because I had people saying that mostly when people go out as interns to companies or hospitals, usually their supervisors use them for other things, like running errands,” she recounted.

However, she said her experience turned out differently from what she had anticipated, providing practical exposure to clinical dietetics and hospital-based nutrition care.

“The period of 10 weeks at the KNUST Hospital was mainly about exposure to clinical dietetics and having practical exposure to how dietetics is done in hospital settings,” she explained.

Christabel described the internship environment as structured and supportive, noting that supervisors guided students through the professional expectations of the field.

Together with her fellow interns, she said they were introduced to the importance of accountability, ethics, discipline and professionalism in healthcare delivery.

“Our supervisors made us understand that this is a very professional programme, therefore we need to be accountable, ethical, and professional in all that we do,” she said.

She added that working in a hospital setting required students to remain proactive, responsible and punctual in handling patient cases.

“When patients come to you, they have a certain perception that they are coming for their cases to be resolved. So, therefore you need to be ahead all the time, you need to read all the time to know the cases you will be tackling,” she stated.

Beyond the discipline and professional values it instilled, Christabel said the internship also reshaped her understanding of dietetics and challenged the common misconception that the field is centred solely on cooking.

“Clinical dietetics is not just about cooking. It is about understanding the relationship between diet and health, and how nutrition can be used as a tool in patient care,” she noted.