My Internship

This year I have the privilege of working with Dr. Andrea Shin in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology as a research assistant. Her research is primarily focused on novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to treating disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional diarrhea, chronic diarrhea, and anorectal disorders. My site's primary purpose is discover differences and similarities with people who have IBS and to discover treatments for digestive disorders that affect approximately 60 million people.


Project Summary

For this internship I worked on a project that worked to discover the effects of race on irritable bowel sydrome (IBS) among United States Adults. The burden of these effects are understudied so we developed an online survey on a non-referral based cohort to discover if there any differences. The surveys were sent out in batches of 100 and then once those were collected a qualitification code was assigned to that respondent to ensure that they couldn't repeat the survey twice. After we collected over 500 survey respondents we concluded that IBS is prevalent in White and non-white adults and the impact of IBS is similar between races. Disparities may also exist related to healthcare access and satisfaction in IBS. 


LHSI Showcase Presentation.pptx
Racial Prevalence Survey DDW Poster.pdf

Learning and Skills

Before and during the first semester: 

Working in this research setting will allow me to grow my skills with technology. I have had prior experience and grown skills with Excel, however, this will allow me to continue to improve these skills for my future career as a healthcare professional. With being in a team enviornment at work, sports in high school, and various clubs, I have acquired a multitude of leadership and teamwork skills although I am excited to grow in new ways as well. A team environment encourages meaningful relationships while also practicing interpersonal skills needed in everyday life. With everyone playing a different role in this internship it allows for collaboration and to utilize the skills that I already have. 

For my future career, communication and teamwork are two of the most vital skills to have, and this professional experience will allow me to develop these by working with the research team and practicing professional communication with my supervisor. I have cutlivated good communication skills through being immersed in team enivonrment at work and sports, building relationships with professors and peers, and talking to new people. This new environment will also bring unfamilarity. I've never worked in a research setting which means many tasks may be foreign to me, however I am ready accept this challenge and explore new tasks. With these new tasks and learning a new software I'll also be able to practice my problem solving skills. Whatever task I am doing, I always try to bring a positive attitude into the environment. It allows for an easier transition with learning new things and keeps the work environment energized. 

With this internship I am most excited for gaining knowledge from the research and clinical side of healthcare as well as learning about the careers and experiences of the clinicians. I'll be able to learn about what all goes into a research study including how it's funded, the different protocols and approvals that are involved, and how long the resarch process takes. I'll also be able to learn what all going into checkups that my supervisor conducts for potential research participants. There are so many different sides to healthcare and I am excited to explore more of these in my internship.

The first semester at my internship completed:

After completing my first semsetser of my internship, I grown in many different ways.  I have grown skills in utilizing REDCap and understanding the necessary protocols to conduct a reasearch study. I've also learned about the branching logic and testing that is needed before launching any surveys to the public.  I now know how to lauch my own survey through a data base called Amazon Mturk which includes approving or rejecting participants, creating a qualification code so an individual can't take the survy twice, and running several trials to get to the correct number of participants. This experience strengthened my technological and problem solving skills. With not having prior expereince with these softwares I've learned how to approach problems and to ask for help when needed. These technological skills can be used when learning new softwares or technology in healthcare and has helped me gain confidence.

This internship fits with my class with what I am learning in my Health Information and Technology Class. In my class I learn about health technology and I can even see some forms of these in my internship. My internship utilizes the Electronic Medical Record when they complete screenings with patients who are going to participate in their study which we learned about in my class as well. This internship has also helped me gain a deeper understanding of excel that I was able to use on the weekly assignments in my class. After a semester as an intern I've grown in my excel skills, the importance of teamwork in workplace especially in research, and I've grown in my communication when reaching out for help when needed. Some of my favorite parts of my experience are getting to connect with my supervisor and the other members of my and to learn about their lives and experience. I've also really enjoyed getting to create my survye on Amazon Mechanical Turk and getting to see it progress over time. 

The second semester at my internship completed: 

My contributions contributed to our goal of developing research on IBS and to conduct a study to identify if any racial disparities among those who have IBS. I helped produce a poster as well to display this study the I took part in. This poster will be used in Digestive Disease Week 2023 as well which is held in Chicago, Illinois. 


The Workplace

During the first semester:

The professionals at my workplace have been welcoming and eager to help me. Despite many of them having busy schedules they respond back very quickly and are eager to answer any questions I might have. With this environment one skill I've learned is to ask questions when needed and know that people are their to help. As a professional teammate I want to be able to approach challenges with adversity bring a positive attitude to the workplace as well. With working with other teammates I have learned what professionalism looks like at different education levels, especially those out of college and in their professional careers. I've learned more about email edequate and also that it's okay to ask for help. 

Reflections on the completed first semster: 

I'm grateful I've been able to see the numerous research studies that are conducted behind the scenes that the normal population would never know about and all of the questions about IBS that are trying to be solved. I've been able to learn how to create my own research survey that's about the racial and ethnic differences in the prevalence of irritable bowl syndrome and also how this data is analyzed. 

This intership has been different from what I expected in the sense that most of my work can be completed digitally and that there is minimal face-to-face interaction. In the beginning I expected it to be an office space where many people are working together however each of us have individual tasks and projects that can be done on our own. Although this is different from what I had expected it allows me to have more flexible hours and my work to be completed at any location. 

Reflections on second semester: 

After interacting with professionals in my internship with several of them having already completed med school and other interns looking to go into medical school, it's shown me just how hard that professionals in healthcare have to work. From hearing about the countless years of schooling and the medical debt, it's built upon my appreciation for providers. To further this appreciation and continue my growth I'd like to gain clinical or managerial experience in the hospital setting. This workplace is different from my ideal workplace with how remote this internship was. My ideal workplace is to be in a environment where I'm surrounded by people and collarborate with others throughout the day. 

Success and Challenges

Successes

These successes have helped me learn that data analytics in not a field that I would not like to pursue, as I prefer more team oriented projects or managerial related tasks. I certainly appreciate and understand the value of research in healthcare, although data management is a career that I don't see myself thriving in.

Challenges