Goals & Learning

Getting into a nursing program and graduating with strong work—that is, with excellent grades and a thorough understanding of the material for my future employment—is my goal for my professional career. I want to find out what specialty would be ideal for me after finishing nursing school and beginning my career, as well as whether I want to return to school to become an anesthetic nurse or NP. These goals are important to me because they will help me advance professionally and in my personal life by teaching me communication, work ethics, and time management. The internship and the semester as a whole demonstrated my desire to take a new path; I had originally intended to go to medical school, but I am now pursuing nursing school. This first year and a half of college has helped me identify my strengths and shortcomings as well as areas for improvement as a person and a student, which has given me greater confidence in my career-related decision. My objective going forward is to keep up my hard work and inspire myself to persevere even when I start to feel too "comfortable."

Gaining a lot of experience with new materials and knowledge—like how hypertension functions and impacts both humans and mice—is my goal for this internship. Additionally, I want to learn how to work independent while still collaborating with others when necessary. Additionally, I want to learn how to communicate professionally and when and how to interact with others. Additionally, I want to acquire new abilities that will help me in my future profession.

Learning Goal #1:  Getting new experiences and learning new skills to help me in the future. 

• This goal aligns with my career path because I will gain a lot of experience using tools and equipment during my internship. Additionally, I'll learn how labs operate and decide if I want to work in labs for the rest of my career.

Action Plan: Tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities you'll do to meet this goal.

1. Just coming in every day. 

2. Working with equipment. 

3. Getting involved and completing new tasks every day.

Progress: I believe I have done a good job of accomplishing these goals because I have acquired a variety of abilities, such as the ability to pipette precisely. Knowing the right approach to utilize a slicing machine and how to slice cells correctly are also important. I've also learnt how to use several software programs to assist in scanning and scoring cell slides. In order to accomplish this aim, I intend to enroll in a nursing program and acquire the skills necessary to become a nurse, such as administering injections and taking vital signs. 

Learning Goal #2: learning how to communicate professionally and properly. 

• In order to help solve problems and accomplish tasks, you will constantly need to communicate with coworkers and supervisors. As such, communication is a major goal that will fit into my future career. Additionally helpful is communication when, for instance, you are managing a patient with a group. You must let people know what you think will be best for this patient and how you intend to assist them.

Action Plan: Tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities you'll do to meet this goal.

1. Just going to lab meetings. 

2. If I have any questions or am concerned feel comfortable talking to Dr. Norlander and Raghad. 

3. Making sure I make some presentation at the lab meeting. 

Progress: As far as communication goes, I have been in touch with my PI and the research technician throughout the year to let them know what I needed to accomplish for my project, when I needed assistance, and to simply explain the general procedures of the experiments I was conducting. Additionally, we all had excellent communication on what I was doing and the goal of the experiment. Since everyone was working individually, there weren't many communication problems. The only thing was that you had to figure out where people were in order to communicate with them when needed; if they weren't there, you had to text them or find them later. 

Learning Goal #3: learn new knowledge that will benefit me in my future.

• New knowledge fits in with my future profession because the things I learn here—like bacteria, spill cleanup techniques, hypotension, etc.—will be useful in the health care industry, where there is a lot to know and beginning early will benefit me later on.

Action Plan: Tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities you'll do to meet this goal.

1. Doing courses to get an understanding of what I am supposed to do and also know more about how mice bodies interact

2. Gain knowledge about how a lab works and knowing the safety procedures.

3. Doing experiments on mice and patients substances to see how they interact and what the results will be.

Progress: I have undoubtedly learned a lot over the internship that will help me in the future. Examples of what I've learned include how to properly treat human blood and how to avoid contracting any diseases that may be there. I've also learned how to stain aorta, kidney, and heart cell slides using Mason Trichrome staining and how to score accurately without biases. Finding out why we were conducting this experiment and what the objective of the experiments was one of the challenges I faced for the longest period. After a while, I was able to finally understand the purpose of the experiment thanks to the helpful conversation I had with my PI and research technicians regarding its objectives.