Through this internship, skills, and abilities that correspond with my career were gained. My experience throughout the duration of my internship gave me the opportunity to work on my communication, professional networking, and collaboration skills. During my time as an intern, I hoped to finish my internship with the skills and knowledge of working with colleagues in a professional setting and lab. Furthermore, I wanted to be able to communicate and network comfortably.
I hoped to contribute my organizational skills to this intern site to help with future research. My mission is to make it easier for the rest of the staff when they need to pull consent forms, data, or release forms. I want to help researchers who use the KTB data by going through mammograms and analyzing whether it is usable or not. Using my collaboration and communication skills, I hope to inspire people in the community to become donors or volunteers for KTB.
I use most of the skills in my day-to-day work schedule. If I had to pick the top two skills I use, it would have to be collaboration and independence. One of my main tasks is updating the social media platforms with events or new reports. I work with another intern to schedule and organize these posts. Most of the time, I work on organizing and updating our database. I have worked on multiple events in the past within the same day, updating the physician list and their volunteer shifts on the way. When it comes to collaboration and independence, I am confident in using these skills. I have no issue working with others or on my own to get the task done.
The only skill I would like to work on is problem-solving and perseverance. The reason why I have some issues with mastering this skill is that I haven’t had the chance to progress. The work that I have done so far hasn’t required me to provide any unique solutions. Most of my questions are usually general and apply to whether or not the task will require additional tools. I tend to resolve my own issues such as technical issues or missing items. Other than that, I haven’t experienced any problems that had to require unique solutions. If I do come across a special problem, I will have to judge to the best of my ability the most beneficial solution.
My internship has allowed me to improve in research and reading/analyzing data and papers. These skills have allowed me to apply myself in the academic settings for biology courses. One of my goals for this internship was to gain research skills. Part of that goal was to experience the research through a lab setting; although I won't be able to experience the lab aspect, I was still able to gain some research skills by assisting the team with the current research and scientific writing. Using these skills will come hand in hand in upper-level science classes. These skills can be transcribed in labs where experiment reports are written and help me increase my understanding of research and data. Knowing how to analyze and interpret all the information will help me in my career.
I have used the majority of my skills during my time at the office or through my projects. I would say communication would be the biggest skill I had used and improved on. Most of the communication involved is via email. This is where most of my projects or social media is received. I have become comfortable emailing my supervisor or other KTB staff about the social media posts or updates about the projects. I will work on improving my problem-solving skills since I didn't have the chance to really utilize this during the course of my internship.
As the fall semester come to an end, I took some time to reflect and learn from everything I experienced. One of my biggest learning outcomes had come through my internship. The reason I became an intern was to gain experience in the career field of my interest. Since August, I have learned something new every time I clocked into the office. Before working at my site, I had no idea what type of research is conducted, how breast tissue is collected/analyzed, and how patient safety, priority, and consent are achieved. I have learned how to read and summarize research for the general public, use a breast cancer evaluation tool, and increase breast cancer awareness to the public.
Every step of the way has been exciting and informative. I have enjoyed walking into the office and feeling a sense of acceptance and belonging. The trust and respect I have received has encouraged me to do better and better. Being part of a team has taught me how to collaborate and communicate in a professional setting. This differs completely from the academic setting. It takes a certain set of skills and personality to adapt to a professional setting. I enjoyed experiencing the staff getting together for special occasions and events.
At the start of the spring semester, we were required to evaluate how the previous semester went through by asking guided questions. Questions such as how were my studying habits? What traits did I gain? How did I grow as an individual/professional? In this case, what skills did I fully acquire? Since working in the KTB, I have learned a lot. I have improved greatly in my communication skills by collaborating with other interns at the office and the KTB staff. I have no issue emailing or contacting any of the staff on confusion or for clarification. My skills in analyzing mammograms have increased over the months. At first, I had difficulty differentiating between a good and bad mammogram, but with practice, I was able to analyze them effortlessly. Now, mammograms are one of my favorite projects to work on while I'm at the office.
During the spring, we focused on preparing for our collection event that has been approved for April 23rd after being postponed in the fall. My new tasks were to prepare supplies needed during the event. I have set up donor thank you gifts, organized each patient's number ID with the correct tubes for plasma and serum, and set up bags for each clinic room with all the supplies (towels, gauze, iodine sterilizer, etc.) for surgeons and radiologists to use during the biopsy. My contribution has led to relieving stress from the KTB staff with the issue of organization and getting supplies set up as soon as possible in a small period of time. I worked to keep things as smooth as possible since the preparation time isn't as long as it generally is. My purpose was to make sure things will work out and there will be enough supplies and support for the event itself.
I enjoyed how the KTB works as a team even though some members are working from home or only in the office. The communication and collaboration skills they use really aid in the smoothness of their work. I have not seen any bumps in their work as they are efficient and careful. I hope to use the same level of their skills in my future career. I will especially need to use communication when it comes to working with other staff in the hospital or clinic. Whether it’s related to paperwork or patient care, communication is an essential skill.
As a professional, I want to grow by experiencing as many professional environments as I can. Whether working at the internship, volunteering at clinics, or even shadowing, I want to gain as much exposure in order to learn the different traits and skills needed to be successful as a professional. From the beginning, I didn't know much about the office setting or what I would be doing as an intern. I knew early on that social media would be one of my major roles to contribute to since I have had experience with social media through organization involvments. Now, I know the position is specific when it comes to accessing donor and volunteer information, reading and understanding different data techniques, analyzing research using donor samples, and analyzing mammograms.
I have been working hybrid for most of the year. At some point, I would come to the office only once a week to find it very empty. Generally, my supervisor and I are usually the only ones present on Thursdays. During the high covid surge, most of the staff preferred to work from home. After 6 months, I didn't expect to work in a super quiet office since I first started working in a fully staffed office. It was an unexpected change that didn't affect me, but it did make me feel lonely. There's always someone popping into the office and I just love to see how our team interacts and communicates with other staff members in the hospital. Our visitors work in different departments throughout the hospital. I think it's fascinating seeing all these departments get together to work on a common goal. Or even just to say hi and make someone's day.
The KTB office has two types of environment atmosphere. Some days there will be around 4-6 staff. On other days it's just my supervisor and me. In both cases, there are lots of communications involved during the event of my workday. There's lots of room for establishing rapport and respect with each other. We have involved both professional and personal time to learn more and support each other. I would like to experience the same workplace culture in the future. I like having the opportunity to go between professional and casual personalities. The point is to create a friendship with the team and remove the focus on just strict professionalism ideologies. Having the chance to grow as an individual and having co-workers supporting you weighs more than just considering them only someone who works with you.
In a way, having experienced this type of culture, I have learned that a balance helps with the overall well-being at work. There's no need to feel agitated, anxious, or nervous about walking into the office all day when you know that the culture there is relaxed and accepting. I learned that working with an amazing team with a good culture helped me grow more confident and willing to try out more professional skills and ideas. More or less, I would love to continue growing in my collaborating skills since this would essentially help me in my career the most. Working with nurses and other physicians shouldn't be dreadful, rather something to look forward to as we learn the best from others.
Out of all the tasks and projects I have worked on, I have had the most success on social media. We have been fortunate to share a couple of achievements with our followers. Our team has been working hard and the recognition for their work has been presented throughout our socials. Social media allows me to utilize my skills in creativity to create posts that are informative, and easy to comprehend for the general public. In doing so, I have gained a lot of knowledge about research I had no idea about.
Another success I was able to partake in is the collection event. Everythting from the preparation to the actual day has been successful and rewarding. Working as the surgical assistant has been a wonderful hands-on experience that I was able to see before wrapping up my internship. experiencing the donors taking time out of their lives to donate for a cause was very moving. Even those who only volunteered helped make the whole event successful.
The most challenging part of my experience is the behind-the-scenes of our research. Since everything has been modified for COVID, I wasn't able to observe the process of obtaining and analyzing skin tissue firsthand. Even though I couldn't see the process in front of me, I have learned all the steps and procedures that normally would have happened if there wasn't a pandemic present. I kept my flow as it was by working on mammograms and Tyrer-Cruzik scores for the rest of the spring semester.
Another challenge I have experienced was completing my internship was the motivation to work on roughly 680 Tyrer-Cuzick scores. In the beginning, I went through roughlt half of them efficiently. However, around the 400 mark, I started getting busy with midterm exams and preparing for the collection event. I put the Tyrer-Cuzick scores on the shelf while I got other things done. Starring at the spreadsheet while I worked would make me tired sometimes. To overcome this, I would set little goals for myself to get a portion done before a specific time. This way, I raced against my inner self to get the work done effectively in an appropriate time frame.