Goals & Learning

Career Goals

After I graduate, I plan to go into pediatrics. I live up in Northwest Indiana and plan to work up there. I hope to work at either UofChicago Medicine's Comer Children's Hospital or Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. I ideally want to work in a children's hospital instead of a pediatric unit of a hospital. After working for a few years at the hospital, I will apply to Indiana University Northwest to obtain my master's degree. I hope to get my master's as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I have these goals to be able to provide for and build my future. I hope to work with some of the child patients who come to the CRC to see the difference between working with adults and kids.
After my internship, I plan to apply to Rileys and work there as a PCT until I graduate, since I hope to go into pediatrics. I will also be working in the CTSI lab part-time during the summer to gain more experience in the research aspect of the medical field. Through my internship, I have learned the value of the work that the research field does. This has led me to want to learn more about the behind-the-scenes in the lab that helps nurses and doctors make important decisions, which is why I decided to work in the lab over the summer.

I am confident in my decisions and I am dedicated to making my goals a reality.

Internship Goals

Learning Goal #1: Use the skills I learn at the CRC to excel in my future clinical sites.

Relevance: This goal will put me ahead to be prepared for future clinical sites by gaining hands-on experience before I will learn the skills in clinical.

Action Plan:

Learn how to perform Vital Signs, blood draws, and ECGs
Learn best practice for documenting
Learn how to prioritize tasks when dealing with multiple patients

I have successfully had many instances of completing my goal tasks. I have had some difficulty with blood draws in which I was unable to stick a patient, but I never let that deter me from trying again.

Learning Goal #2: Grow my communication skills with patients and staff.

Relevance: It is important to have good communication with both patients and fellow staff to ensure everything runs smoothly. I will be communicating frequently with patients and staff and it is good to grow those communication skills for professional settings.

Action Plan:

Shadow Nurses to learn best practices for educating patients
Engage with patients to understand their perspective and needs
Listen and read clinical research study orders and flowsheets to understand diseases and treatments

I have made sure to ask the nurses for any opportunities to watch them perform tasks I can complete in order to become better at them. I also have improved upon my patient interactions. I have made some flowsheet mistakes, but I have understood what I did wrong and used it to do better in the future.

Learning Goal #3: : Gain connections that can help me build my future career.

Relevance:By working in the CRC, I will gain valuable connections that will help me learn and grow since they have a plethora of knowledge I can learn from.

Action Plan:

Be curious and engage when I have questions
Offer to help and actively be part of the team
Reach out to resources I meet during my internship if there are opportunities for my future

I have asked questions to the nurses and my supervisor to gain more knowledge, and I try to help in any way that I can. I will be looking into working in the lab over the summer, which we send our samples to. I gained this connection by interning at my site.

Learning

- - - - October: I am very good at asking questions and accepting feedback from my colleagues. They are very open to questions, and I use their answers to build on my knowledge about the healthcare field.
      - March: I have become more confident in completing tasks in which I may fail. Even when I fail to complete a blood draw, I am still eager to try again, and I do not let my failure discourage me. I have learned it is important to take the opportunity to complete tasks while I am still learning with the help of others to grow my knowledge and ability to complete tasks with little to no mistakes.
      - October: I am not fully independent yet at my internship with everything. I still need help with some things since I am still learning; however, I am now given tasks that I can complete on my own without assistance. I just need to practice more to become fully independent.
      - March: I would like to continue working on my independence as before. There is still a lot I can learn by watching and working with others in and outside my internship. I will be working in a lab this summer, which will include a lot of independent work in that I can use to become more confident in myself.

My internship is allowing me hands-on experience in nursing. I am learning things at my internship that I won't be learning until at least next semester in school. It has also shown me the process of working with patients in a hospital. Overall, it has provided me with experience that can put me ahead in my coursework, allowing me to be more prepared for the future.

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