My name is Ruqqayyah Abidemi Balogun, an MSc Dietetics student (pre-registration) at Teesside University. This is a 2-year programme that requires every student to complete a minimum of 1000 hours of supervised clinical placement, an opportunity to bridge academic theory with professional practice across a range of settings, including the NHS and public health, where opportunities to contribute to research also arise.
I began my placement with the expectation of being taught how to be a clinician, which included opportunities to participate in research, and among other experiences, I learnt how to listen. The dietetic placement is over the course of three terms: a short-duration placement and two longer placements of equal duration. The shorter placement ended as quickly as it started. However, the two longer placements included opportunities to engage in research. These research components are what I will focus on in this blog, describing their impact on me as a student and their impact in a health setting. Research work sharpens critical thinking, and it helps move a profession forward. It gives voice to people with lived experience; it helps shape policies and guidelines, improves patient care, and helps identify gaps and challenges.
I have been able to contribute to three distinct research projects during placement, each one pulling me in a different direction, quietly reshaping the way I think about food, care, research and the people caught in the space of this. Believe me, at the start of placement, I had a vague understanding of what research entailed, but once I became involved, I realised it helped me connect more with improving health, which, in a few words, is one of the purposes of research.
The first project took me somewhere I genuinely wasn’t expecting… a dementia dance group at a local community centre. And that is something about placement in general: travelling is always involved, a big challenge for a user of public transportation; you’ll be a master at scheduling travel times while running to catch your bus, and a train will be your workout session. This research involved inquiry into a picture-based menu designed for people with dementia. The premise was practical – could the pictorial menu improve food choice, intake and dignity for people whose cognitive abilities had changed? Feedback was needed on colours, image sizes, and any ideas that could be added to make menu usage easier and more effective. For this I needed to meet the families and patients to receive feedback and suggestions to improve the picture menu.
I was able to gather similar frustrations from all families regarding text-based menus. They described how their family members with dementia would often stare at the list of words, unable to translate this wordy menu into any sense of appetite. The picture menus weren’t just a functional adjustment; they were a form of respect. To them, it was a way of saying, ‘YOU still get to choose.’
And of course, being a dance group, I danced. It was a slow, long waltz. Very therapeutic.
These picture menus had already been distributed to hospital wards; hence, my peer Findlay Montgomery and I interviewed staff (housekeepers, nurses) and guardians to review the menus’ effectiveness. On the hospital wards, people with dementia also participated in the review; we witnessed them engaging in the process of making a lunch order with the picture menu, which was a fulfilling feedback.
Another research activity I engaged in during placement lived in spreadsheets, and analysis of audit information. It was methodological: analysing quantitative and qualitative data pulled from responses received from Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) on how clinical supervision is received. I spent weeks reading and carefully analysing responses, ensuring that I preserved the original phrasing provided by each AHP. The numbers told one story; the words told another. Collating these responses and interpreting the data in charts and percentages, reviewing similarities and differences. It took a few tweaks to finalise the report; it can be engrossing and time-consuming. The audit gave me an insight into how supervision works for AHPs, and I was able to devise recommendations that may be implemented to improve supervision within NHS settings.
This audit carried institutional credibility, and I worked with the trust’s chief AHP, which deepened my confidence in analysing the research. Reading the written responses and being able to convey them adequately was a valuable example of learning how to listen.
The third research activity I engaged in was humbling; it was a patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) interview with adults diagnosed with long-term diet-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease who experience emotional eating. PPIE is an essential cog within all research. It engages people with lived experience to join the research team and support the project. This helps ensure research reflects the realities of people living with a particular condition, meaning the research is more likely to genuinely make a difference. My PPIE involved working with lived experience contributors to develop survey questions. Here I needed to not only be a clinical dietitian but also extend my skills to those of a research dietitian; I focused on the questions required for the research. I was trusted with someone’s story, which asserts that listening is important. It was refreshing to provide a platform for people to share their stories within the research design.
Dietetics is not just a science of food and its nutrients; it is a practice of emotional and behavioural skills required for practice. These researches evident that for me.
Another research activity during placement saw me visit York to observe the work of NHS researchers. One of the senior clinical researchers, Sarah Morris, was supporting a treatment trial for Trontier, an experimental antibody designed to treat early-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD). She was generous with her time, walking me through the questionnaire, assessment tools and eligibility criteria that are used to evaluate whether participants could continue to participate in the trial. I also had the chance to observe a patient consultation, gaining insight into how questions were asked and how responses were recorded and updated into the system. Alongside this, I spent time with Angela McGloin, a clinical studies officer involved in a research study called ‘SPACES’ – Supporting Physical Activity for people with severe mental conditions. The aim of SPACES is to help people with severe mental conditions become more physically active by adopting active lifestyles. During my time in the research department at York that day, I participated in two consultations with people who had lived experience, where we explored barriers and facilitators and completed questionnaires. Active listening proved to be a valuable skill throughout my time in the research department at York that day.
Towards the end of placements, presentations were carried out. Presentation is a strong section of a research project. It is a way to demonstrate the ability to communicate what you found and why it matters.
Deborah Green, a trust-wide food service dietitian, supervised and supported my research activities during my first long placement. This picture-menu research was done to improve nutritional intake, prevent malnutrition and reduce mealtime distress for people with dementia and it won a ‘Dementia Care Team Award’ with ‘Dementia UK’ on the 30th of April 2026.
Research activities within my second long placement were supervised and supported by Steph Smith, Clinical Academic Dietitian, as part of her role within the University’s Mental Health Leader Award. An important part of the award is helping to build research capacity and capability within our region, and I’m pleased that I had the opportunity to build my research knowledge and confidence with her support and to understand the importance of research for dietitians.
By Ruqqayyah Balogun, a final-year dietetics student at Teesside University.