Internship

The skills that I previously have are communication with coworkers and bosses. I am good at staying active and communicating to see what tasks I need to complete. I also have previous medical knowledge from taking classes such as anatomy and medical terminology. I also take pride in my leadership position in my sorority as the Vice President of Philanthropy. In my sorority as well, I pick up volunteer hours and work with the deaf community in Indiana. These previous skills will help me in my internship by strengthening my knowledge more and making these skills stronger for my future career in the medical field as a Dentist. Since dentistry has a lot to do with medical imaging and x-ray scans I can apply that to my internship and carry that knowledge all the way to dental school!

This year, I have been such an impactful team member. I have assisted Dr. Newman with endless scans and identifying them along with working on a timely schedule. Being a good team member is not based off being good at what you do, but assisting efficiently to further the research to get results. My team role has changed from lower maintenance work such as filling out a lookup table from patient scans to investigating specific CT scans and how they change in marrow composition. It all has ended up to my results of being a productive team player in the workplace. My contributions have furthered our investigations by comparing results with my mentor to get the patient data that can further the investigations of using low and high energy and their impact on bone marrow composition.

The first time I have felt successful as an intern, is when I was using hands on learning in the hospital. This is when I was sitting in the room with a child while observing their CT scan. I got to experience the behind the scenes and investigations of what we are looking for within a patient that is causing discomfort.  The action I took, was listening to the doctors words for medical terminology that i previously picked up on in my coursework. Along with that, precisely investigating the scans to make an efficient observation that I can use in my future career of dentistry. This is relative to my course work as well. I am using the software excel to keep track of patient data which is relative to my future in my undergraduate degree! To further this success,  I have worked more close with patients as I have been volunteering as well in the hospital. I have learned that it is so much more meaningful when being in person and getting hands on experience with patients with face to face interaction.

The second time I have felt successful, is when using critical thinking. This is when i successfully used the software that Radiologists use called 3D slicer. Slicer is a technology  to open up and cut in half the images of patients to have a deeper understanding of what I am looking at.  What I have done, is slice the images and efficiently 3D sliced part of the back in half to further investigate the lower vertebrae. What I have learned from this, is that it's accomplishing to work hard discovering new pathways of technology and what I plan to do in the future with X-ray imaging. Plus, discovering the human body is essential for my medical knowledge. How I will apply this goal in the future, is use this technology called slicer in slicing patients images in the oral part of the body for dentistry. From learning this knowledge now, I will have a better understanding of how to navigate it in the future. To add to this success, I have became inclined with all of the software used such as 3D slicer. My mentor hired a worker who knows how to use the software in every way which have assisted me in becoming inclined with the software and how to navigate the CT scans.

The most challenging task, has been troubleshooting communication. I have only been to my site two times and most of my work is from home. I communicate with my mentor through email so it is difficult to get immediate responses while working. My mentor is great at responding as soon as he can, so once I get the information I clock back in to fix any errors or complications with my work. My takeaway from this lesson, is that it's important to check emails especially in the future when it is more professional to send emails than text. For the future, I can apply this especially while working in a professional setting and emailing is the most efficient way of communication in the office. This is relative to my course work currently, because the only appropriate form of communication is emailing through outlook or canvas. This is currently making me stronger with the form of communicating through email.  To add on to this challenge, I have communicated with mentor weekly and his new hire to help assist me in every way possible. They have been tremendously helpful with navigating software, patient records, and identifying scans. 

The second most challenging task, is time management. Working from home is new to me so it is hard to get myself to do it on a set schedule. To help with that, I usually go to a coffee shop or the library to work well outside of the house. I have learned that it is okay to work from home, only if you are getting your work done efficiently. I have also learned, that my work ethic is more leaning towards working in a medical setting on site. I can apply this to my future, especially when looking at job descriptions and straying away from the ones that say they are remote so I can work in an in-person setting. This is also relative to my current coursework. Almost all of my classes are asynchronous meaning we do not meet. I put aside time to work on those classes from home as well. This all leads up to boosting my time management. To add onto this challenge, I have tremendously grew in time management with setting aside two specific days to work a week on my internship and balancing good grades in all of my other courses. It has been a struggle but a success in the overall end.