Workplace

Professional Skills and Strengths

• Communication: I've gained communication skills through my executive position in my sorority where I facilitate honest and difficult conversations with members of our chapter to resolve an disciplinary issue. This skill contributes to my internship because I'm able to effectively communicate the purpose of the study, even if that is an uncomfortable topic. Additionally, this aids me in my future as I will have to have countless uncomfortable conversations with patients regarding pregnancy, STI's, etc. as an OB/GYN NP. 

• Organization: I've gained organization skills from my advanced biology coursework throughout college. I've had to organize my time properly to complete assignments, study and attend to other parts of my life. This will foster efficiency at my internship when completing informed consents, questionnares and data entry tasks. By expanding on this skill, I will be able to complete large tasks in the future as an OB/GYN NP while also managing my personal life.

• Empathy: I've experienced various traumatic events in my life which may be unfortuante, but it has allowed me to gain a sense of empathy. I'm quick to understand the feelings of others rather than judging them. This helps me conduct questionnares for mothers who have just given birth, as this is a special and vulnerable time in their postpartum experience. Lastly, empathy will prove to be the most beneficial skill for my future career because I can gently deliver negative news. 

Area of Improvement

• Through this internship, I've improved on my problem solving skills because I struggle when I'm not provided a step by step summary for a task. This site allowed me to become adaptable and troubleshoot my own issues before seeking help from my supervisor. 

Personal Team Role

• This year I have been a very organized and empathetic team member, as I've juggled various priorities such as my academics, sorority, other job, etc. Overall, my team role stayed rather consistent throughout the internship as a primary recruiter of postpartum women for the research study. At first, I was in charge of recruiting postpartum mothers at Riley, but now my role has expanded to recruiting mothers from various parts of Indiana. My newer team role is part of a study called Narrative Exposure Therapy, where we are gathering data on how women felt while participating in a previous study of ours.

• My contributions have created a welcoming and warm environment amongst all participants, potential participants and other colleagues. My positive attitude allowed participants to open up to me about their birth experiences, whether it was positive or negative. Additionally, I've gathered significant data for both studies which will be essential for data anlaysis and ultimately providing women with the mental health resources they need.

Successes and Challenges

Successes:

One success that I had at my internship was mastering different databases required for the study such as REDcap, OnCore, Cerner, and Microsoft Teams. During my first two weeks I really struggled to manage them all but I got help! My colleague Kylie really helped me with this because she gave me step by step instructions for each database and never hesitated to answer my questions. From this, I learned that I can accomplish tasks no matter how great, even if technology seems daunting at first. This is essential to my academic and career goals, as I will be using these same databases in healthcare and future research during undergrad.

A second success that I had at my internship was troubleshooting a patient that began crying during the questionarre, as we ask very sensitive questions. I was able to employ my empathy skills to redirect the conversation and help them through the rest of the survey. From this, I learned how essential compassion and sensitivity is when talking to a trauma-exposed patient. These two skills are necessary for my future career as I encounter patients who may have a traumatic past.

A third success that I had at my internship was becoming adaptable as my team role slightly changed mid-internship. Currently, I recruit women from various parts of Indiana to discuss how they felt participating in a prior study where they answered questions regarding potential traumatic pasts. I gained this role rather quickly and was able to master mass communication with potential participants and organization of their data across multiple tracking sheets/databases. From this, I honed in on my organization skills and realized how important a uniform tracking system is which is valuable for any lab in undergrad and patient data in my future career.

Challenges:

One challenge I've faced during my internship was when my colleague Kylie wasn't there and I needed to print off the consents and resources for patients. Normally, Kylie brings these for the both of us, but I had to figure it out on my own. I used the Kuali IRB website to print off the proper files and then one resource wouldn't print properly. I was able to figure out how to edit the print settings to make it print. Then I was able to consent and interview patients shortly after that! The instruction that Kylie had given me previously significantly helped me in resolving this situation.

Another challenge I've faced during my internship was being "interrupted" by other healthcare staff that needed to see a patient. This was obviously not a big deal as their medical care comes first. However, I used my empathy skills and said it was no big deal and I'd stop by later. When I checked in later the patient was busy with someone else so I looped back around a third time and was able to talk to them. It took some patience, but I handled it well! My colleague Kylie taught me how to be adaptable and patient in these scenarios, as the patients health always comes first.

A third challenge I've faced during my internship was when my team role changed to mass recruitment of postpartum mothers across Indiana for a different study. At first I was overwhelmed with the number of calls and emails I needed to make and how to organize all the data, but my supervisor, Dr. Miller, was extremely patient with me and consistently provided me with a step by step procedure of what needed to be done/how to do it.