My Internship
My internship site is located at the office of Adolescent Medicine Center for HPV Research. We have a variety of projects going on in the office, including research projects and outreach programs. At my internship, my day-to-day work includes attending lectures at IU Health, attending IUPUI LGBTQ+ ECHO meetings bi-weekly, attending monthly ACLU Round Table meetings, IU Health Grand Rounds at Riley Children's Hospital, and working on projects such as collecting names of Gender Affirming Therapists across the state of Indiana for patients to have access to. I have also been creating a hand out/website page for new incoming patients so they know what to expect at their first appointments, and I am currently working as a research assistant for Dr. Richard Brandon-Friedman and his team researching the impact of gender affirming care on the well being of gender diverse youth.
Project Summary
This past year I have had the opportunity to intern in the Office of Adolescent Medicine at IU Health. This experience has entailed a wide variety of workshops, meetings, projects, and research. Through the past 7 months, I have attended LGBTQ ECHO Meetings through the School of Public Health, the Indiana ACLU monthly Policy Meetings, and workshops held by the medical library at IU School of Medicine. During my time, I worked on creating a content guide for first time patients at Riley’s Gender Health clinic, what to expect for their first in person and online appointments to help alleviate any anxiety new patients experience. I am also working with Dr. Richard Brandon-Friedman and his research team on their research regarding the mental well being of gender expansive youth who are receiving gender affirming care. We are currently still conducting this research study, and will conclude before the end of 2023.
Learning and Skills
I will be learning how to conduct research in the scientific community, improve my interpersonal communication skills, and will be learning how to work independently on various projects in order to advance the work that is being done.
From my internship, I hope to gain valuable skills and enhance the skills I already have. I want to learn more about technological resources that can be used to communicate, conduct research, and enhance the lives of others. I hope these skills will help me in my future endeavors, whether that is graduate school or a different program of interest.
From my internship, I hope to learn valuable skills that will be applicable to my future career and post-graduate studies. I hope to gain knowledge in the process of research that is conducted in academic settings, as they will be needed as I continue onto Graduate School in the future. I also want to learn more about the action being taken to enact change and the process of advocacy for minority populations in the medical field. I am excited to learn more about research, and how I can use my experiences to either make new content or programs for the clinic to use to help patients have a more positive experience. I have also learned how to use programs like RedCap for data collection and I have learned how to create content intended to educate patients. Some of my favorite experiences thus far have been attending ACLU meetings ECHO meetings, and working with the staff at the Adolescent Gender Health Clinic.
As I have continued through this semester working with LHSI and managing my coursework, I have found several instances where they relate. I had to complete the CITI training in order to be added to the IRB for research projects, and I noticed a lot of connections between the CITI training and my Ethics and Diversity in Psychology class. Using these different trainings has also helped me gain a deeper understanding in my classes and has helped me make connections between my coursework and real-life applications. As I have progressed into the spring semester, my classes have intertwined with my internship as I am learning statistics while working on the research that we have been conducting. I am also taking more psychology classes this semester so I have been able to make more connections with my internship, the research and my classes.
My contributions to our work this year has brought great impact, specifically with the research project that I am a part of. My main role in this project so far has been recruiting participants for our research study. I have been calling caregivers, sending Informed Consent documents to potential participants, answering questions as needed, and this has helped in recruiting 10 participants so far. Eventually, I will be helping with the interviewing process and will be interviewing participants as they complete each step of the project.
Throughout this year as an LHSI Intern, I have learned various skills including self management, time management, interpersonal communication, learning how to use database software such as Red Cap, and Syntax to retain data, organize data, and to perform statistical analyses on the data obtained. I would like to continue to get better at using different database software programs, as these programs are still fairly new to me, and I want to continue to improve in my self management and working independently.
The Workplace
Behaviors and/or actions that I wish to achieve in the workplace include the following. Effective and timely communication on projects and tasks involving other people in the office. Enhancing my ability to give and receive both positive and negative feedback from collogues, and being able to apply the feedback I receive to my work in order to better my own work skills.
So far in my internship, I have worked with people from various backgrounds and cultures. It has been very interesting learning how my colleagues' experiences have shaped their line of work, along with influencing the research they have been working on. My internship has been different from what I expected because it was slower in the beginning. As this semester has progressed, I have finally been assigned different tasks or projects to complete versus the beginning of the semester where I was mostly learning and attending different meetings, panels, and discussions.
My attitude has changed since being in the office at my internship. The environment is very uplifting, and I feel like I have been able to make a positive impact in the workplace. I feel like I have a space where I belong, and I always feel welcomed when I come into the office to complete work. I don't think my beliefs have changed a lot since I started my internship, because a lot of the beliefs in the workplace also aligned with my own, so I felt comfortable from the beginning. I think working in an uplifting, welcoming environment has helped me grow professionally, and has helped me see that there is no task too small that can help positively impact the office.
The culture of my internship team is uplifting, encouraging, and has a strong work ethic that influences me in a positive manner. Our work is highly independent, but we still lean on each other for support and converse for feedback. I think these traits have helped me succeed through this internship, and I will continue to look for these qualities as I continue to other workplaces and professional school later on.
Success and Challenges
Some of my successes thus far have been completing trainings like CITI training, learning how to use RedCap for data collection, and attending the IU Health Pride Passport event to learn more about the resources IU Health has to offer to their LGBTQ+ community. Attending the Pride Passport event also helped me figure out my future career goals. My supervisor has been a wonderful resource in providing information for different meetings, helping me connect with different people in the office, and letting me attend different events with him. Another success that I have achieved is figuring out possible graduate programs to apply to in order to become a Child Life Specialist. I have also been able to learn how to balance my schedule, in order to adequately make time for school, my internship, work, and time for extracurriculars.
Some challenges I have faced this semester as an intern have included delays in being added to the IRB for the research project I am on the team for. To overcome this challenge, I kept in touch with my supervisor, letting him know if I had received any contact, and if I had not he would reach out on my behalf as well. Next semester I can continue using my supervisor as a resource, along with my other colleagues and team members in the clinic. My internship has continued to help me overcome challenges that I may face. I have learned to be flexible and to be patient while waiting for responses or waiting to move forward in different projects. I have also learned that it is okay if I do not complete every project idea that my supervisor has given me to work on, I am still completing work that is well rounded, and that I am still put my best foot forward.
I have been able to overcome some of the challenges, like waiting to be added to the IRB to begin working on the research project. I was successfully added, and have been actively working with the research team to complete our study.