Elevator interview
Caroline Bovey
Chairman British Dietetic Association
Thank you for this opportunity to share my story with you. I left school way back when, with very few O levels (yes, that long ago!) of mediocre grade. I had no real idea what I wanted to do for a living and ended up getting a job through a ‘youth employment scheme’. Interestingly, it was in a hospital kitchen in my home town Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. I had no choice in this – but it now seems rather prophetic in retrospect. I did all sorts – loading the dish washing machine mostly, but also working the conveyer belt plating up meals to go into the ward trolleys, clearing tables in the staff canteen and lots and lots of cleaning. Looking back, I can’t recall any awareness of Dietitians being involved in the catering system even though I was there for the best part of a year. I then moved to a second programme where I worked as a TA in the school that I had previously attended, into retail as a shop assistant in a health food shop and then to a long period being self-employed running a wholefood store. My interest in the impact of diet on health and wellbeing was steadily growing and, in 1999, I completed an Access to Science course which meant I could join the UWIC (Cardiff) undergraduate Dietetic course the following year.
Prior to taking and becoming the BDA Chairman, I held the position of chair of the Wales Board for several years.
We are very fortunate in Wales that, despite the geographical challenges, we work as One Wales Dietetics.
The Wales Board has run a number of very successful events during Dietitians Week in recent years, several of which have been sponsored by Welsh Government ministers and have therefore given us direct access, not only to the ministers themselves, but to numerous influential committee members, including those on the Health and Social Care committee. We also work very closely with members across Wales and one of our members brought the, then pending, ALN Bill (Additional Learning Needs) to our attention. The Board made arrangements to have Dietetic input directly to the working group, informing the Bill, and this has resulted in Dietetic needs featuring in the final version of the Bill. And, of course, one of the key things about Wales is the pride in our language and the Wales board now has a considerable number of the food fact sheets translated into Welsh. This means that we can have a BDA presence at national events in Wales communicating many of our key resources.
As a profession, I have seen great improvements in how we are communicating our worth with the wider community both inside and out of health. I work as a Public Health Dietitian and I’m very aware that there is always a lot of publicity and social media interaction regarding obesity, healthy eating, etc., whereas the incidence and impact of malnutrition is often overlooked. We all need to be proving our worth but because of the media bias toward more commonly understood topics, it’s vital to raise the profile of the value of nutrition support as a specialist area. Outcomes is one way in which we can do this, as is engaging at higher levels including policy and guideline development (e.g. NICE) and developing strong relationships with other leading bodies and advisory groups to ensure our opinions are heard and our expertise is recognised.
There is also more focus now on developing extended roles for Dietitians in response to the changing environment. Dietitians inserting feeding tubes, supplementary prescribing and other exciting developments will help to raise our profile further and are excellent examples of how, given increasing financial constraints, our profession can work to overcome challenges while still maintaining quality, evidence-based services.
So, coming full circle back to the school leaver who entered the adult world with a very limited chance of gaining any employment, working in Dietetics has given me so many opportunities for professional development and personal growth. It’s truly a profession that offers prospects and as we live through the considerable changes that we will see in forthcoming years, we must embrace every opportunity we can – if we don’t others will.