Growing comfortable speaking with clients in a professional medical setting.
This goal enforces the idea of speaking to clients in a real setting, and allows me to learn how to really talk to clients as a future Social Worker.
Working towards this goal I will interview patients for clinical research, analyze qualitative data from patient interviews and surveying patients in clinic.
As of March, I have been able to experience speaking with clients in a professional setting in the ways I've explained above. This has allowed me to accomplish my goal. I feel little to no stress talking with the families we work with, and I'm proud with the work I've made in this goal.
Experience social work in a professional setting.
This goal will help me learn how to work with clients in a medical setting. This goal is an extension of the previous goal, and will allow me to learn if working in a medical field as a social worker will be a good fit for me.
Working towards this goal I will read publications about social work intervention in clinics, and analyze data related to psychosocial experiences in our patient population.
Experiencing social work in a professional setting has been an eye opener for me as of March. I now understand what it means to be a medical social worker, and how I can apply what I'm learning in classes to the real thing.
Learn to create, upkeep, and interpret data from a Social Work Perspective.
This goal will allow me to create, and use data in my future work as a social worker. I can use the tools and research I gather through this program and my cite as a launchpad to use data in my future.
Working towards this goal I will transfer data from paper to digital format into a more useful database, and I will learn how to design a research database.
As of March, creating, upkeeping, and interpreting data has been a breeze. Thanks to my cite, I can now look at data and interpret exactly what it means, and use it to further my understanding of populations outside of my internship cite.
Other goals I have are to maintain my place on the Dean's List, and eventually obtain my Masters Degree in Social Work through the schools advanced program. I never gave high school my all, and with college I have decided to focus, learn and grow in ways I never believed I could. This program will allow me to see if I can work efficiently in a professional setting and be a full time student at the same time.
As of March, I feel as though I have completed these goals, or at least have a better understanding of them. I've grown more comfortable speaking to clients in a professional setting shadowing our on cite Social Worker. This on cite Social Worker also allowed me to experience Social Work in a professional setting. And finally, with the tools I've learned to use such as REDCap and Cerner, I have learned to create, upkeep, and interpret data from a Social Work Perspective.
As of October, I've grown more comfortable using team communication to my advantage to ask important and insightful questions. We have team meetings every week, and I occasionally meet in person at the Sickle Cell Clinic to work. Initially, I was very timid when working, and though I am still not fully comfortable, I've grown to speak up and become more active in conversations.
I would like to continue working on my ability to work independently, usually I work around when we have our meetings or when I go into in person work. I find it hard due to lack of motivation to work independently on my own time. Finding the motivation is the first step I should take in working on improving this skill.
I'm incorporating my already established skills of problem solving and perseverance well in my internship. I find simpler ways to implement our data and test different approaches to working with clients. My experience so far through my internship has been helpful in understanding what I want to do as a Social Worker. My new education using our data tools allows me to understand what I'll need to do with client data in my future work.
As of March, I would say I have excelled in the aspects I've grown to use for my internship cite. I no longer feel timid or nervous in discussion, and I try to be a thoughtful member of all conversations I'm apart of. I've grown to work independently, understanding the tasks I complete, and finding motivation to get these tasks done.