Goals & Growth

How does this goal fit into your career journey or prepare you for the future?

There will always be problems that I may not have an answer to in my future profession, so I’d like to be able to improve my skills at problem solving so that I can be independent and reliable.

What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?

1. Working through issues with lab projects by brainstorming new ideas to improve efficiency

2. New data collection and organizational tools to collect information on

3. Developing new research designs such as understanding what we’re and why we’re doing

Progress on this goal since fall:

Since the fall I've helped create a codebook in one project to help categorize data in a clear manner. I looked through literature reviews over various topics, with one being the decisional conflict scale stroke and thrombectomy patients. 

How does this goal fit into your career journey or prepare you for the future?

It is important ot be well-versed in different applications of technology, as many healthcare professionals uses technology to complete certain tasks. Another benefit to improving my technology skills is that my efficiency and with online tools helps me finish work in a timely manner, not only as a future healthcare professional but currently as a student who is purusing the career. 

What tasks, responsibilities, projects, or activities will you do to meet this goal?

1. Working with REDcap

2. Working with Excel to process data and becoming comfortable with it

3. Working Microsoft Teams to store data and communicate with co-workers effectively

Progress on this goal since fall:

Throughout my time working at my internship I've consistently used Microsoft teams for weekly meetings, accessing files, and setting up dates for important events. This kind of use has helped me become more flexible and capable in navigating through different applications to meet with team members, access files, and set up dates for important events. Looking through data in online applications such as excel and word has led to me becoming more comfortable in data analysis through those tools. REDcap has not yet been used as the projects weren't in the appropriate phase of research to use REDcap.

My internship experience confirmed my goals and my career planning journey through the work I did for it and the skills I've developed in doing so. Researching was one of the tasks I got from the internship and it was a task I enjoyed and see it as an important aspect in my career planning journey. I feel more confident in what kind of work I prefer and what preferences I have that will impact my career-related decisions. Although I enjoyed researching for my internship, I can now recognize that I don't prefer that kind of work and am better able to understand what it is that I'd like to do in healthcare.

My goals have remained the same since last year. I still plan on applying to physical therapy school to become a licensed physical therapist. One of my goals was to job shadow a physical therapist and I had recently job shadowed at a physical therapy clinic, so I've accomplished that goal of mine and I'm wanting to job shadow more now. Another goal I had was to study abroad, of which I've been accepted into a program and am currently on schedule to travel abroad this summer in central Europe. Overall my goals haven't changed but I have made significant progress on my goals.

I'd like to work at another healthcare internship this summer as well continuing to job shadow physical therapists. I'll continue to be in the honors college until I graduate so that I can use the skills and recognition from the honors college to help me enroll into a physical therapy school. 

I've used Problem-Solving, Oral Communication, and Teamwork skills and have been more confident in them since fall. My internship had weekly meetings where we discussed upcoming tasks and projects of which helped me improve my communication and teamwork skills. Talking to my peers and understanding our collective roles during these team meetings is what improved my skills. Certain projects helped improve all three of these skills such as one project that required teamwork between my peers and I, of which required problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills to share our collective work and to figure our the findings/takeaways from it.   

I want to continue working on my skills to build relationships and achieve goals. I can communicate with others effectively but struggle to build relationships with my peers when we're not working on a project together. To improve this skill I can collaborate and seek advice from my peers on my own time so that I can connect with them and to improve my work relationship with them even further. After LHSI I can be proactive in building relationships with coworkers in other work related settings. I can improve "achieve goals" skill by focusing more on my tasks and taking the initiative on them instead of pushing them off. Whether its during or after LHSI, I can develop strategies and routines for myself so that I am more consistent in completing my tasks and achieving my goals. 

I believe that my internship has shown me the applications of health science and why the research conducted for in it is important and applies to our everyday lives. My internship helps me connect to my coursework on a deeper level because I've done health care research for my internship and it shows me that this kind of research is critical to health science in the fact that this research contributes towards better treatments and care. My coursework touches upon how important healthcare is to people's everyday lives, and my internship's work helped me connect and see how the public views certain healthcare debates, of which gives me a clear perspective of how healthcare and patients need each other to thrive.