My Internship
My internship is with Dr. Deanna Reinoso at Eskenazi Health. It is with the Social Determinants of Health team. The main focus for this year will be the intersection between food insecurity and other social determinants.
Eskenazi Health is the public hospital for Marion County. This means that the hospital system sees many Medicaid and uninsured patients. It also serves a large immigrant and minority population. The first step to improving the public's health is to figure out who needs additional resources and assistance. That's where my role comes in. In order to know who needs help, everyone must be screened for social determinants of health (i.e. food insecurity, housing, transportation, etc.). With how busy providing health care can get, screening for needs may get placed aside, but efforts must be made to increase screening so that people can get the care that they deserve. My particular team is currently focusing on food insecurity and making improvements to the clinic's food pantry. I survey patients who already utilize the food pantry on their food preferences so that we may better tailor the pantry foods to our culturally-diverse patient population. The intersection between culture and health is one that may no longer be ignored. Conducting these food preference surveys is just one of the ways that the SDOH team is working to bring light to this matter.
This video features a food bank in Wyoming that does similar work as us at Eskenazi and Crooked Creek Food Pantry. One difference is that the minority population who we assist is predominantly Hispanic instead of Native American.
project Summary
Learning and Skills
Reflection
One strength of mine that I hoped to grow during this internship was my leadership skills. I feel like I have gotten to a point where I am comfortable leading not only as a student but in the professional world as well. From this internship, I learned more about the application of research findings. Through school, I have learned about the research process itself, so it was nice to find out more about the changes that take place after conclusions have been made. My favorite experience thus far has been all of the new connections that I have made. I have met so many amazing people who are willing and eager to help integrate into their team and their mission.
New Skills
I am most confident in my problem-solving skills and perseverance. I have no problem working through a difficult situation, and I am getting more comfortable with trying things on my own before I ask for help. An example of this was entering the survey data into the software system. I was nervous about it at first because I know I am not the most tech-savvy, however, I tried it out, made a couple of mistakes, asked some questions along the way, and everything turned out fine. Luckily, I was able to delete and/or correct my mistakes, so that took some pressure off of having to try to perfect. This ties into a skill that I would like to work more on, and that is being fine with failure. I am only just starting to be more comfortable with the idea that not everything is going to work out the way that I want it to. For example, one time that I failed was in answering a question for a patient before they left their appointment. I felt bad because I wanted to make sure that I had the right answer for them, so I went to go fact-check what I was going to tell them, but when I got back, they were already gone. This situation ended up fine because after speaking with one of the medical assistants, I was informed that the question was indeed answered. For some reason, that did not make me feel 100% better. I guess one way that I can combat this fear of failure is to put myself in more situations where I may fail. An example of this could be setting goals for the number of surveys that I want to complete per shift. I may not reach the goal, but at least I am making progress towards it.
Real World Application
I am pleased to say that this internship aligns perfectly with everything that I have been learning in school so far. As a public health student, food insecurity, diaper need, and other social determinants were all something that I learned about in the introductory courses of my major. To me, I see the social determinants of health as the very foundation of health care.
One of the ways that this internship has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of my coursework is by allowing me to think more realistically about everything. When I am in my classes, it is easy to say 'why don't we just get people the resources (money, jobs, housing, medicines, etc) that they need?' I now see from this internship, in the "real world," there are systems, finite resources, and other barriers that prevent us from living in this utopia that I envisioned from my classes. Do not get me wrong, I am still an optimist, but now I have more realistic expectations and goals.
The Workspace
Role Models
Two specific people come to mind when I think of behaviors and actions that I have seen that I would like to have as a professional and as a teammate.
The first person was a physician that I met at the clinical food pantry. She is a pediatrician who regularly volunteers at the clinic's food pantry on her days off. I would like to be like her professionally because even though she helps people during her day job, she does not stop there; she cares for her patients in more ways than one and makes sincere efforts to prove that their well-being is at the forefront of her mind at all times. This physician shows true commitment and dedication to her work and her community, and for that, I would love to be like her professionally.
The second person was a graduate nurse that approached me while I was inputting survey data. He was the first person, besides my supervisor, that wanted to have a conversation with me. He asked me about school, extracurriculars, my family, and my professional goals, and he gave me excellent advice that has truly made me reconsider my life! To be a teammate like him means that I care not only for the objectives or goals of the team but it also means that I care about my teammates as individuals.
As a professional, I would like to grow in terms of confidence. Currently, I feel like I am experiencing a learning curve between what I have been taught in school versus applying that knowledge in the real world. It is exciting to finally be able to put the pieces together, but it is also scary. Sometimes, I feel like an imposter or like I do not belong in a room full of such intelligent and prestigious people. I think it may take me a while to fully get rid of these feelings of inadequacy.
As a teammate, I would like to grow in terms of leadership. Since the beginning of my internship, I have felt like a follower because I just do what I am told to do. However, I am getting to the point where I feel like I should and I am able to take more initiative and be more independent. For a while, I did not want to seem like the intern who was bossing everyone around, but now I see that in terms of getting surveys completed, I must take a more assertive route than before.
Expectation vs. Reality
It has been extremely beneficial to me that I get to work with such a diverse group of people. In the Social Determinants of Health team, we have physicians, researchers, social workers, and many more. At the pantry, I also get to work with a large group of volunteers from all over the community. I like to think that the different teams at my internship site serve as a representation of what it takes to improve public health - it takes everyone doing their own part. At the clinics, I get to interact with patients that come from various immigrant populations from Latin America and Africa. We also see a high number of low-income patents as well. One of the biggest things that I have learned from all of these different groups is that everyone has their own individual story that makes them who they are. One must keep an open mind and be willing to learn in order to better serve their community.
This internship is a bit different from what I expected. I came into this experience thinking that it was going to be a very numbers-driven, science-heavy project. It is not to say that we are not using evidence from our research to make improvements, but I find that with this internship, there is a large focus on what I believe is the most important thing - the people. I enjoy this internship so much more because I get to put faces and experiences into the research that we are doing. It feels amazing to be able to see the immediate results of the work that we are doing.
Successes and Challenges
Successes
One time that I felt successful as an intern was when I was reading the additional comments that were left on the survey. Our surveys allow people to list foods that they would like to see added to the food pantry. In the additional comments section of the survey, we are really looking for feedback on what we can do to improve, but most of the comments are just people thanking us for all of the help or simply for just asking them their preferences in the first place. Another time that I felt successful as an intern was in being able to communicate with a Spanish speaker to help her fill out the survey. She was so surprised that I could speak Spanish and it made me feel like I actually helped someone.
Challenges
The most challenging part of this experience has been my schedule. I will be the first to admit that I put way too much on my plate while doing this internship. I would have loved to spend more time at my intern site. I would have loved to attend all of the team meetings, but they take place on Thursdays at a time when I had class. Throughout this experience, I have communicated this with my supervisor and she has been extremely understanding and open to working with me through this. Luckily, I plan on returning as a volunteer with Eskenazi for its new mobile food market initiative.
