Internship

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Workplace

• 1. 1. 1. 1. Creativity & Unique Problem Solving

              1. I have been extremely artsy my entire life. I am extremely proficient at drawing realism, a skill that has turned into creating textbook-appropriate illustrations of the human anatomy with extreme detail. This skill has allowed me to come up with out-of-the-box solutions for problems or studying I might have, as well as being proficient in my human anatomy due to drawing it myself.

           2. Leadership Skills

              1. I am naturally a very sociable person, and that helps when I am in an office environment and this allows for me to get along and work well with others. I have previously volunteered often at the Christamore House Guild, putting on events for the local community and getting along with the children at the events. 

• How will these skills help you complete your internship work?

These skills will help me with my internship work as it will help me approach my tasks in a creative and unconventional manner, solving problems in ways that most others would not often think to try. 

I have been a great contribution to those in my office! I have helped with important projects around the office such as Tissue Collection Event Preparation and assisted those in my office on research management. My role changed as needs changed around my office, whether that was for document scanning, research on cell regeneration in the lab, or organizing the storage closet with our important equipment. 

I impacted my team being a surgeon's assistant student because I assisted the surgeons in collecting breast tissue. That works towards a greater goal of breast cancer research because these samples get sent across the country at a researcher's requests to conduct tests on them. My efforts assisted with getting the event prepared for as well as guiding the donors through their sample collection process. Some of the donors were first-time donors were anxious and it was my job to help guide them through the experience. 

Successes and Challenges

I felt successful as an intern when I was able to be a student surgeon’s assistant. I got to hold pressure on incisions to stop bleeding and be there every step of the way through a donor’s donation process. My student supervisor, who was an intern at the KTB before me, was the one to teach me everything I needed to know for the donation day. I helped donors understand what they were doing because I knew everything about the tools and procedures thanks to my fellow intern teaching me. I have learned how crucial it is to properly communicate with your donors, or in future instances patients, because you want them to trust you and the physician

Another great success I felt was when I was leading a project on event preparation for our October tissue collection event. I was able to take initiative on the supplies we needed, counting inventory and letting my superiors know what we needed to order more of. My direct supervisor said I could reach out with questions if I had any and I got to operate under my own basis. This let me feel comfortable with reaching out to my supervisor when needed and I didn't feel pressure to be perfect as many employees do in the workplace. It was a project where I got to be very independent and do something extremely useful for the Tissue Bank.

A challenging part of this internship so far has been figuring out the transition of BC^2. Where there have been projects I have needed to complete and/or work on, we did not have a set schedule for me to work on them. This led to the projects not being worked on for some time and individuals not getting the work that they needed. I felt lost coming into the office some days as I felt idle and useless, but we have since established a schedule and will enforce it to fix this issue. Now I have scheduled times to work on these projects and people are getting the work and information they need in a timely manner and I have a schedule to operate under.

On another note, I generally feel like I have a difficult time fitting in in most places, and I felt that way at the start of this internship. I normally am the one to reach out and make friends, but being so busy in college I have stopped being the one to do that, therefore, I have not had any friends. However, over time I feel more comfortable with the people around me and like I belong here. They have made me feel like I am an important part of the team and that they enjoy being around me and I greatly appreciate that.

I have been able to use the things I have learned from my internship thus far in my own schoolwork. For example, my disability and society class is about learning proper communication when working with patients and or individuals with disabilities. During my internship so far, I had to learn how to properly inform, speak to, and comfort donors during their donation processes. As well as being able to inform them about what their donation does for science. The process of talking to donors helped me excel in my health classes regarding learning patient manners.