F2F
FACE TO FACE Ursula meets: Ursula Arens Writer; Nutrition & Dietetics Ursula has a degree in dietetics, and currently works as a freelance nutrition writer. She has been a columnist on nutrition for more than 30 years.
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Ursula meets amazing people who influence nutrition policies and practices in the UK.
DR ANGELA MADDEN Dietitian and Academic Nutrition and Dietetics Lead, University of Hertfordshire Co-author/editor: Oxford Handbook of Nutrition and Dietetics
Angela picks me up from Hatfield Station and we find a quiet café (except it is not: the music throbs; but as we are the only customers, our grumpy request for less volume is served, along with tea). Angela has had a dietetic career spanning many years in clinical practice, research and higher education: who better to interview for a cool and calm assessment of our profession? Young Angela was very sciency, achieving A-levels in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, but developing her interest in food at home. “My mother was, and still is, an amazing cook, but I didn’t really appreciate it at the time. Eating at a friend’s house when a ready-meal was served made me aware of how lucky I was.” Angela graduated in dietetics in 1982 from the University of Surrey. She had really enjoyed her student placement at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, as well as a nutrition placement at the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cardiff. “I was surrounded by great researchers but didn’t realise it at the time. Professor Archie Cochrane was one of many experts who worked in the unit while I was there.” Her first job was at the Hammersmith Hospital in London. Although she was, of course, a basic-grade dietitian, it seemed like being thrown into the deep end of the profession. “The hospital had a postgraduate medical school, so many cases
www.NHDmag.com August/September 2017 - Issue 127
seemed complex, and many of the staff were academics. There was no Manual of Dietetic Practice or PubMed, so we often made clinical decisions about what to do on the basis of discussion between dietitians. But I enjoyed the challenges of work and living in London.” After two years, Angela wanted a change, which a maternity cover post in Saudi Arabia promised and delivered. The hospital was very different from NHS models of care, but very modern and well-funded. “I was wide-eyed and very interested in the different cultures and procedures, so I learnt a huge amount in a short time,” said Angela. Electronic patient records were in place decades before their use in the NHS. Her next job was at the Royal Free Hospital in North London as a specialist dietitian in the liver unit. In addition to lots of clinical care, she was closely involved with many research projects and while sitting on an interview panel to find a PhD candidate, the other panellists realised that the best candidate was not the one sitting across the table, but the woman sat on the panel with them! The post offered gains, of course, but also much hard work and long hours of effort. After much perspiration and a little inspiration, Angela completed her doctorate on the assessment of nutritional status and body composition in patients with chronic liver disease in 1998.