My Internship

In this internship the LEADS team, located in the Neuroscience center, research the effects of early onset Alzheimer's and factors that go into the cause of this degenerative disease nationally. Their research contributions are then used to devise a plan on how to detect and treat early onset Alzheimer's Disease. 

At LEADS internship we study the development of early onset Alzheimer's disease. This population of individuals has many unknown factors about what will lead to EOAD in one's lifetime, and LEADS works to solve that. As a nationally known study, LEADS site 037 focuses on enrolling participants into three groups. They recruit a control group of cognitive normal (CN) participants, a comparison group of early onset non-Alzheimer’s disease (EOnonAD) participants, and the main study group of early onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) participants. With this data through imaging, fluid biomarkers, and neuropsych testing we are working to build a profile of the causes of EOAD. Not only working with other LEADS sites around the United States, we also work with a wide variety of sister research groups to look into comparisons of early onset Alzheimer’s disease with many cognitively known impairments. 

Learning and Skills

In this internship I plan to build the skills that I have now by stepping out of my comfort zones with them. With this I am very comfortable with the computer knowledge that I have not only developed through schooling but in jobs, and by allowing myself to now step into the world of medicine I will see the data entry programs they use. This will allow me to expand and see all the planning and processing that it takes to develop data sheets for patients. Many skills are very useful as communication and team work is key to this internship. Without these skills I would not work well with my supervisor as they will not only be guiding me but providing me with tools to expand my knowledge. I am excited to learn more about the medical field in the sense of the studies that are created to help gain more knowledge of the diseases that may occur. This has peaked a big interest in me as I am exposed to more than just the hospital side of careers that I could go into. 

After two months of being at my internship site, I have gained a lot of confidence in a professional work place. My communication skills have definitely increased. My supervisor and I talk almost everyday and discuss about what I am learning and new things that need done in the office. I also communicate frequently with other coordinators in the office who may need binders, QC's, or sources uploaded to the database. When asking for these things I always make sure to double check and get back to my supervisor/coordinators to confirm what needs done and how I can help them lighten their work load. Finally, they have taught me the importance of uploading patient information into our database. This portion of work that needs done has taken me some time as it is very important to cover and PHI. This information can be detrimental to the patient's privacy in the study if it is not redacted from the paperwork. This has taught me the importance of being patient and taking my time when working on projects like this. Towards the end of this internship experience I have learned the great behind the scene importance of my work. I am able to contribute to the bigger picture due to prepping for coordinators to be able to thoroughly take notes during patient visits, working with data input to then be interpreted in a consensus meeting, and to make sure that data gets to other sister researchers on the same floor. 

This internship fits in with the work that I am doing now at IUPUI, because it shows me the applications of what I have learned. Specifically this would target my Intro to Psychology course where we discuss a wide variety of neuropsychological disorders and testing that may be performed. From this I have not only been able to learn about the tests, but see how and why they are used. This internship has allowed me to study these type of neuropsych evaluations with real world applications (participants results) on them. This can also be going hand and hand with a previous course that I had taken that did go into detail about disease progression of Alzheimer's Disease. From learning it in that course I am now able to see over the course of the longitudinal study where participants have started at psychologically, and where they have progressed to now. It has really opened my eyes to how quickly and severely certain disease progressions can occur. 

I have had great experiences here due to the environment that I am around. When everyone is in the office and my supervisor is around, there is always a good time for having fun and also learning. She is very educational and takes her time with teaching us, even when she is tight on time. To me that dedication is very uplifting, helpful, and beneficial, as to why I have grown in this office. 

Workplace

Working in the office with many individuals it is amazing to have the variety of employees that know an abundance of information to help the other interns and I. When observing the coordinators there are a great demonstration of the work and dedication that they put into the research. When discussing patient visits they show their care and appreciation for all of the participants that come in and take their time for this research. It is very welcoming and has an environment of encouraging questions and making sure the employees enjoy what they are doing. They also take their time learning what each individual wants to get out of the job/internship. As a professional and teammate I would love to have this attitude and dedication to a job the way they do. Having a positive environment every time I come into the office allows me to look forward to working with them, and that is an experience that I value greatly and hope to express in many other jobs. They continue to help expand my potential through different research possibilities when the internship concludes after the summer. 

Working with the other interns has opened me up a lot to the unlimited possibilities of careers that exist out in the medical field. They have discussed with me many passions they have and how working at this internship site for the past year has really helped them grow to know what they would like to achieve. It has also been nice seeing the variety us interns bring as we all come from different backgrounds, age, and culture. This internship is a lot different from what I expected because it is more relaxed in getting the tasks that are assigned done. They have shown me that they value my efficient review over a quick turn in time. I also value this very much from the internship because it makes me feel accomplished that I can take my time to do things right versus having no confidence that I am doing it right at all, but getting it to them on a short deadline. 

My attitude has been impacted a lot as this is one of the first jobs that I have taken where there are many challenging things that have stumped me at times. The people that I have worked with in this office have been an amazing help at developing the confidence in me and even giving me work that is more challenging because they believe in me. This office has a diverse setting where I have been able to get advice from my coworkers who I work closely with on my professional journey after leaving college. 

Successes and Challenges

The first time that I felt very successful was preparing my first ever binder for my supervisor. I felt this success as this was the first task that I had done and been approved that I am able to make them without help. This was of course a very long and challenging task to take up for the first time, but seeing the growth of where I am now makes me proud. I am glad that I found patience and took the time to make sure all documents were placed in the correct spot of the binders for the coordinators to use. Another success was creating my first chart transfer to be reviewed. After many minor mistakes made when reviewing QC chart transfers, my supervisor came up with the idea for me to make one to be reviewed as it would help me better understand why certain documents go where. After making the QC it was very helpful and rewarding to know that I had done a better job when making them from start to finish, and now reviewing them I have so much more confidence in myself to do it correctly. I have faced many more successes since then and prepping for the big showcase has been a big success as well. My supervisor is very excited and always rooting/helping with every step of the way in making sure that my material is to the standard that I am looking for, but also meeting the deadlines. 

The most challenging portion of the experience is getting the hang of how to perform the tasks. When first starting out it was extremely rough for me on some of the tasks. Learning all the details and names that numerous documents go by and the certain portions of them that are shared with the different research groups did take me longer to adjust to. This was due to the numerous amounts of different paperwork that is required for different projects. Things that may need uploaded to one database may not be needed for another one, and things that may be put in a binder are much different than what may be needed to go to the research group next door. After getting down what goes where and how it is needed and many many questions asked later to my supervisor I feel I am doing better than when I started. Other big challenges now that I face after being here for almost the full academic year is management of the tasks with school. It can be hard as I am in high credits and many are major classes in my degree that I take very seriously, but also would love to spend putting in more time at work. My supervior has been very gracious of working with my schedule when we need to discuss things, and she always works with the limited availablity I have to make sure someone is there and working with me. She always challenges me and asks me questions so that I can better understand how things are done. She has greatly helped me pick up and understand why we do what we do.