My Internship
The goal of this study is to develop an autism spectrum disorder-specific staff training and treatment protocol to implement in emergency departments and general psychiatry units. This project is important as autistic individuals often receive non-therapeutic psychiatry care when they experience acute mental health crises. Interviewing parents of individuals with autism as well as healthcare providers who have treated autistic individuals ensures that developed strategies are well suited to the needs of unit staff and providers. A new phase of the study began last summer where higher functioning autistic individuals were interviewed as an additional stakeholder group. It is important to incorporate the opinions of these individuals since they are most affected by lack of awareness when it comes to autism spectrum disorder. Once all the interviews are conducted, we began analyzing the data to inform the development of strategies to make autistic patients stay more in line with their unique needs and more effective overall.
This link takes you to the homepage which summarizes our research:
Workplace
After a few months in my internship position, here is what I have learned and observed. I meet with Dr. Fodstad and two other research assistants in her lab. Since everything has been so unclear with pandemic, we have our weekly lab meetings through zoom. All our meetings and any work I have done thus far has been done remotely which is something I has not expecting. Ideally we would be meeting in a lab space which is more of what I thought it would be like. However due to covid, this is not the case. We meet once a week for about an hour to discuss any new updates we have and what our tasks are for the coming week. Tasks include conducing interviews with participants, inputing data into the recap database and sending out emails. The weekly meetings are very useful and we use our time productively while also having a good time and getting to know each other better. Through these meetings, I try to grow professionally and learn as much as I can about the project and my responsibilities. I would tried making connections with people who have career aspirations that are similar to mine. Something surprising about the day-to-day life of this work is the opportunity I got to learn from so many different individuals from different areas. I was exposed to an environment with people from different communities and cultures than my own and that experience has taught me many lessons throughout the year. Working with my supervisor, I got to work with a professional who is in the field and doing what I want to do some day. Working with other lab assistants, I learned a lot from them through the knowledge they provide me with based on their experience. I also got to learn a lot from healthcare workers as well as parents/caregivers of those with Autism and about their personal experiences with that. The work experience was different than I expected in that I expected us to be meeting in person a lot more. All of my weekly group lab meetings as well as my one on one meetings with my supervisor are over zoom and all my work is done through my laptop. I was expecting to go into a lab everyday and see my supervisor and coworkers in person, however that is not the case. Our goal in the lab is to improve the lives of Autistic individuals, and this creates a workplace culture where everyone is driven to help others. When we have our weekly lab meetings we are always discussing our next plans in terms of the project and we are able to collaborate and get things done. I feel very safe in our workplace as I am able to ask questions as well as give my insight and truly feel heard by my supervisor. My ideal workplace culture would be one where everyone is honest and has a good work ethic. It is also one where there is a good amount of communication and collaboration between everyone involved. Working in this lab, I feel like the workplace culture at this internship is similar to my ideal workplace culture. Working with many different health care providers and parents, my personal beliefs and values have been impacted as I want to do more to try and help people affected by ASD. As a professional, Ive been able to develop many skills as I've interacted with my lab mates as well as my supervisor.
Successes:
Preparing a a poster summarizing the research we have done and presenting it at the 27th annual IUURC.
Been exposed to the research process as far as recruiting participants, interviewing them and coding whatever useful data they provide.
Working and learning from my supervisor and other research assistants and forming professional connections as well as friendships.
Beginning to help Dr. Fodstad on a new study she is doing with participants who have down syndrome.
Learned about the Autism Spectrum Disorder in terms of diagnosis, treatment options, barriers in treatment, and symptoms. I have also been able to experience connecting with certain stakeholders (healthcare providers and parents) who have dealt with Autistic individuals.
Challenges:
Learning how to conduct and interview and ensure that I get useful information from participants as well as noting important things they say. I wanted to be as aware and sensitive as possible to stakeholders. I conducted mock interviews with other research assistants and shadowed their interviews until I was ready.
Learning how to code data and analyze it correctly in terms of valence and other relevant themes. Since it was my first time doing something like this, I was overwhelmed at first and unsure about certain aspects of the coding process. However, my supervisor helped me with all my questions.
Finding a healthy balance between work, school, and my mental wellbeing. During midterms and finals, I would feel overwhelmed with other school things so sometimes it was hard to find time to balance both the school aspect and work aspect of the internship. My supervisor was always very understanding and always put my mental wellbeing first.
Learning and Skills
Through my experience at this internship, I would like to learn how to effectively conduct research and how to analyze the results I receive. I would also like to make connection to people who are in the same career path I am interested in. I expect to contribute my time and effort into this internship. I will give it the focus it needs while also ensuring I am working to the best of my abilities. I would like this position to help me develop already existing skills I have such as my communication skills and my consistency. The work I am doing in the lab also ties back into my classes and sometimes I can incorporate what I've learned from my coursework into my internship. I am taking behavioral neuroscience which goes into all the neurological aspects of why humans do what they do and autism has been discussed multiple times. My supervisor, Dr. Fodstad, is also encouraging me and supporting me in my aspirations to work with war refugees who might suffer from PTSD and other issues due to trauma from war. Throughout my first semester, I have learned so much about Autism spectrum disorder and how individuals with this developmental disability have a hard time receiving the care and treatment they need in hospital settings. I have also worked on my communication/people skills by interviewing participants for the study and meeting new people through my research. Something new I have learned that was a completely new experience to me was coding and analyzing data. Now that the recruitment and interviewing stages are done, we are moving on to coding the information we received from participants. I have learned how to code data in terms of valence and certain themes which has been very interesting. My favorite experience was going to the IUURC this semester to present a poster on the work I am doing with Dr. Fodstad. I was able to see other undergraduate student's research from different IU campuses. It was very interesting to see the innovative things other people my age are working on. Being an intern at this site, I was able to be a part of something that will help make the lives of Autistic individuals more convenient. Interviewing caregivers and parents of those with Autism, I was able to hear their stories and try to amplify their voices in terms of what they need to improve the care they receive in psychiatry units as well as the emergency department. When coding these interviews, I am able to identify common themes among all participants and that way our team can provide them with solutions that are well suited for their needs. Throughout my time at the internship, I've used different skills and have been able to build on them. By working with my other lab mates, Ive been able to develop my teamwork skills as well as my communication skills. When moving on to future roles, I will use these communication and team work skills to work with other people I may come across.
