I am working on researching experiments and studies
conducted in third world countries on mothers and children regarding nutrition
and behavior change to nutrition. I currently have the pleasure of working with
Dr. Constance Gewa of George Mason’s Nutrition and Food Studies Department. I
find studies and review and compare them, and Dr. Gewa decides which aspects of
the studies would be most useful in constructing her own study on nutrition in
Kenya.
On a weekly basis my main responsibility is research. I find
the best peer-reviewed articles on the topic Dr. Gewa needs and condense them
down into an annotated bibliography. I usually try to find five or more
sources. I also convert the annotated bibliography into a spreadsheet summary.
I divide the columns into topics such as “theory”, “sample size”, or “results”
so that we can better understand the effectiveness of the studies. This
semester so far, I have been working with data from a study conducted on
women’s nutrition in Africa. I am responsible for filling in the blanks in the
data, correcting mistakes, and interpreting the data.
I have learned so much in this job. This week I discovered that
maize (corn) and potatoes are the most common staples in the Kenyan diet. I
found this interesting because corn and potatoes are new world foods, not
traditionally grown in Africa. Millet and other grains originating in Africa
have almost become obsolete in African cultures today. The effects of this can
be seen in the growing rates of malnutrition in children and adults, and there
has been a push to return to farming the grains original to the climate rather
than raising the new world foods.
My long-term goal in school is to earn my BSN and become a nurse. I
believe everything I do in this project helps me towards that goal. I am
learning how to best treat and care for people who are suffering from
malnutrition or who are living in food deserts while also learning about the
cultural and socio-economic effects on nutrition. I believe that this type of
learning and understanding will help me to become a more compassionate nurse.
