My Internship
Describe Your Work
I will be interning at the Pediatrics Divison of Adolescent Medicine project site. I understand as an intern my job will entail meeting and recruiting with highschool students along with data management for this project site. I will be a part of research projects and learning about different contraception and pregnancy prevention options for adolescent youth. I also be learning about the importance of consent and the importance of teens understanding health and sexuality.
The project site that I'm completing my internship at is the Pediatrics Division of Adolecent Medicine. This program works with youth who have chronic medical conditions which put them at risk for persistent HPV infection and cancers. We assess parents of the young adults that we work with and the young aduts views themselves on the importance of vaccination and whether or not they would be willing to be vaccinated.
Changing the Map is another project that I have worked on at my internship. CTM is a program that is implemented in the three Health Education programs offered in Rural Indiana in Indiana. It is a evidence-based prevention program in place to help educate the youth. This evidence base prevention program is used to advocate for the health and wellness of adolescence by decreasing teen pregnancy and sti's. Changing the Map of Teen Pregnancy collaborates with local agencies and have three programs that help empower youth through decision making skills. These programs are Be Strong Parents and Youth Cafes and, WoWTalks Cafes for parents and youth. These programs provide support to adolescent youth and their parents.
Elevator Pitch Visual -2.pptx
Learning and Skills
I believe this internship will allow me to build on my communication skills. I will be working with people I haven't woked with before, I must be vocal about things I may not understand or things that I may need help with. I believe working in a professional setting will also help prepare me for my future, working in a professional healthcare setting.
What I want to gain from this internship is the ability to understand and communicate how the HPV study that I'm apart of has a major impact on the youth who will be apart of it. I want to be able to make a difference in their lives by informing them of what it is, why it can help them, and debunking concerns about the stigmas surrounding the hpv vaccine.
What I look forward to is some of the tasks that I've been assigned to me like familiarizing myself with informed consent of the patients to determine whether or not they feel comfortable being apart of the study. I want to be able to grow in my role as a Research Assistant. I want to be able to understand the different roles that I have as a Research Assistant. I.e doing interviews, filling out surveys, using Outlook, Asana, and Redcap. Do more research on Humanpapillomavirus and what it is and how it affects people. What ways help prevent hpv, what safety precautions would someone need to take if they contracted the virus. I want to be able to demonstrate basic office skills and apply those skills to other projects and situations with limited supervision. Some skills that I use so far that I'm confident in is that I'm always asking questions to make sure I understand completely the tasks assigned to me, because I'm new to this role I like to make sure I thoroughly understand any tasks that I've been assigned. The skill that I would like to continue to improve on is time management with assigments that are due. In order to improve I will try setting reminders in my calender for tasks that I've been assigned in Asana.
What I have learned so far about being an intern, is that everything is a learning experience. The time that I have spent at my internship has provided me with knowledge that I didn't know before. I believe that this has helped me become a very well rounded individual. Not only have I learned how to navigate professional spaces like working in an office space, and being around patients and there families, I'm very happy that I chose this specfic internship to work at. Some of the work I do is organizing different resources that are availabe for community outreach programs that help adolecent youth in different counties in Indiana. One of my favorite experiences while working at my internship, although it was very nerve wracking was starting clinicals at the hospital. I was able to see first-hand exactly what I signed up for and I absolutely loved it. I was able to meet different patients and their families and listen to the different stories that the families came with. I was also able to be surrounded by many different healthcare professionals from doctors, to nurse practioners, to physicians assistant, and many more. This is an experience that I will always remember and cherish.
Some skills that I have acquired through this internship is being able adapt and understand the different databases that my internship uses. Some of the databases that we use is Asana, OneDrive, Redcap, EndNote. I've also learned the importance of Google Calendar and making sure that I don't have any meetings scheduled during the week. Making sure lines of communication are clear and concise has been another skill that I've been practicing. If I don't understand a task I make sure to throughly explain what part of the assignment that I doesn't make sense to me. I've learned that I'm a fast learner, so many times if something is explained to me by walking me thoroughly through the task, I will be able to do it correctly.
My contributions has impacted the larger projects at my internship because everyone has a role that is needed for the next person to complete their job. For example, I helped edit surveys that were needed in clinic in order to recruit patients snd their parents to be apart of the HPV project. I'm not the person who goes to the clinics twice a week to recruit patients, but without the surveys patients have no way of participating in the HPV project.
Some of the skills that I have used this year is communication. This has been a huge accomplishment on my end because my internship site has been extremely understanding in unexpected circumstances that has affected and me and my ability to work in-person. One area that I would like to grow in is getting more hands-on (in-person) experience working at my internship. This is a goal that I have had since I began my internship. There are certain skills that you develop being in the environment and learning how to navigate what to do. Other experiences after LHSI that I want to experience is more research assisstant oppurtunities, working as a receptionist in a doctors office, or being a patient care technician. LHSI has helped me feel well equipped and able to do these jobs through much of the learning and courework we complete each month. I have grown tremendously from the many interactions I've had and different tasks that I have completed. I'm constantly learning new things at my internship.
Successes and Challenges
What I have been the most succesful at as an intern is being able to communicate with my supervisor about whether I'm able to complete a task that has been assigned to me or not being able to work a certain day of the week. This has been a great habit that I have kept up through out my internship. There have been times were I've been assigned work in a certain database that I was unable to access. I let my supervisor know that I was having issues accessing this specific database and that I had also reached out to the IT consultants at IUPUI and they were unable to help me. My supervisor was completely understanding and assigned me different tasks to complete for the week. Apart of being able to communicate effectively is asking questions to make sure you understand assignments given and making sure that you understand exactly what you're supposed to do so that you don't have to redo any work.
Some of the most challenging parts about this internship is working remotely from home. Sometimes I'm so busy trying to juggle homework, life, and my internship work that I feel like I'm under constant stress. Sometimes I feel like I don't have a work life balance because my work follows me when I'm home. I plan to work on this during the spring by creating a schedule for the week. I will set aside my internship work on certain days and homework on others. This will help me feel more organized and less overwhelmed.
There aren't any new successes. I've been able to manage some of the challenges that I've been facing since I started this internship.
The Workplace
I have only been in person two days the for the first week of work. What I observed was that everyone wore office attire. No one was dressed in sweatpants and sweatshirts. Another thing that I noticed professionals at the workplace do is have there credentials in there emails. This is a habit I would like to start because it shows professionalism, and it gives the person you email a way to reach you and it lets them know your position in your work place. Where I want to grow as a professional is understanding how to navigate the assignments and task given to me by my suppervisor with limited help. I want to be able to understand the different terminology used in this line of work to help me better understand the task at hand. I also want to have my credentials tagged in my emails like everyone at my workplace. I want to be able to communitcate effectively with patients and there families conducting interviews or even reaching out to different schools about the resources they provide or their students.
I can't really answer this question because I have been remote for my entire internship. Due to personal circumstances I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing any day-to-day experiences at work.
My experience has been different than I expected because I haven't had the chance to work in-person. My experiences are limited to working remotely where I don't have any contact with any collagues at work.
This experience hasn't provided with any oppurtunities to network with other people outside of my supervisor. Although I do know people who know people that can help me network with others.
The culture of my internship was very friendly and inviting. Everyone came and introduced themselves to me showed me how to do specific tasks or were certain things were at and this was very helpful to me.
This isn't far from the my idea of what kind of workplace environment I would enjoy being in. One example that I can think of is Buzzfeed. If you have ever watched any Buzzfeed videos you see how much positive interaction the employees have with eachother.
I grew up around people who are apart of different cultures outside of my own. I've tried many different cuisines, and have heard many different languages being spoke. Interacting with families of different backgrounds isn't very new to me and thankfully I've had a great foundation that has helped guide me in situations dealing with people with different backgrounds and cultures.
Career Goals
The time at my internship hasn't changed much of what goals I had set for my self prior to joining. If anything that this internship has helped me with is getting to network with more people who want to see me succeed in meeting my career goals.
I feel as though I'm confident in my self knowledge and understand what preferences I prefer in the workplace in order to make career-related decisions.
November Prompts
LHSI November Promtps.mp4All of the questions for the November Prompts are answered in the video.