Internship
About the Internship
On behalf of Riley's Children's Hospital Pediatric Care, the internship involves clinicians who are trained in autism evaluation of children. At the end of the evaluation, they use their clinical judgment and results from standardized tests to determine the child’s diagnosis. With family consent, the data from the evaluations is entered into a secure online database by the interns or staff, including myself. By entering the data into RedCap, a secure web platform for building and managing online databases. The data can be analyzed for research or quality improvement purposes.
Project Summary
I'd like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to the LHSI program for providing me with this incredible opportunity to grow not just as a student but also as a future researcher. Regarding my experiences during my time in the LHSI program, I was able to work alongside Dr. Eva-Kurtz Nelson, Angela Paxon, and their team to assist with entering data into the REDCap database, which includes evaluation information on patients with neurodevelopmental concerns, including autism. This internship allowed me to learn a lot about autism, the research process, and data entry. I'll discuss what I've done, what autism is, and how analyzing the data can be used to better understand autism. The data can be used to analyze research questions, such as the difference in autism prevalence between boys and girls. Of course, there are certain limitations to examining data on this subject. The database only contains patients seen at Riley Developmental Medicine in the last two years.
Work
My current strength as a team member is...
My ability to be organized and use time management to focus on a certain test that needs priority in entering data.
Attentive and cautious when entering test evaluations into the RedCap database.
Precision and accuracy are important when entering data so that no errors are presented when analyzing the data for future research purposes.
Asking questions to ensure that everything I enter into the database is accurate or needs to be fixed.
This enables me to learn from my mistakes and make the necessary corrections so that the process is executed correctly next time. Data entry can always lead to issues, therefore knowing how to solve difficulties when they arise can be helpful. It may be necessary to notify a supervisor in some cases where an issue has arisen, for as when a test result is incorrect or associated with the incorrect patient. It would be crucial to keep an eye out for these errors when working on additional tests so that the issues might be reported and resolved.
I am also attentive to learning new skills, such as revising and confirming other peers' data entry work.
Apart from entering test results, reviewing them is also important. This allows one to check the work of others so it can be fixed or confirm that they have been entered accurately.
From the beginning of the year, my role has been to enter data of test results, but as days have passed I have learned more about behind scenes research, autism, and the ups and downs of data entry. Something that has changed is learning and being able to help my peers revise their data entry for any errors. When confirming the data entry of physical tests, it allows for these tests to be stored in files so there is a new test that can be confirmed.
As a professional and teammate, I would like to build relationships with staff by helping them with any data entry needed. I would also like to grow in independent work by being trained in other tests so I can be able to enter other kinds of test evaluations. Another thing I would like to do is gain experience in research and be able to communicate professionally by attending journal meetings or even learning more about the different test evaluations.
My contributions have impacted the larger project by helping to enter certain test data that needed to be done by a certain due date. Even without a due date, I can help with entering any other data that needs to be entered just to decrease the amount of data that needs to be entered. I also got the chance to learn and confirm the revision of other peers' data entry. This allowed for their piles of tests that had been already entered and only needed to be reviewed for accuracy to decrease.
I have learned from my co-workers that when entering data there are questions about what results on the test should be recorded when entering data on the data base. This could be questioning the importance of a certain question that is recorded when entering a number or answer to a certain question on the database. I have also learned that when entering data the organization of the questions could be different from the test results but could also be worked on and rearranged to enter the data better and also fewer errors. Overall, I've discovered that there is a lot more to entering data into an online database. Overcoming problems also allows for a better understanding when it comes to cooperating with others and asking questions. For example, acquiring new information about data entry has allowed interns like me and other staff to enter data more accurately and efficiently. Being able to collaborate and ask questions will help me in the long run of my career to understand better what is expected of working with peers.
Success and Challenges
One time that I felt successful was the ability to accomplish the required entering data for specific test evaluation before the due date. I would set up a certain amount of data entry to be entered each day, leading up to the due date. Some days I would enter 15 test scores into the database, and if I had more time to spare, I would continue to enter more.
A challenge that I am having is finding time to attend journal meetings. I was unable to attend the last one due to my hectic schedule. I'm hoping that by continuing to work with this site throughout the summer, I'll be able to find another opportunity to attend one and be sure to contact my supervisors about being invited to the next one.