Internship

Workplace

Some skills and strengths that I bring to my internship include, strong communication, organization, critical thinking skills, and trustworthiness. Past projects as well as other roles have helped me gain these skills. Working with electronic medical records for previous courses led me to keeping things organized. I am able to work in a fast paced environment which I learned from my other job as an online grocery picker. For me it's important to stay calm in stressful situations in order to think of all possible solutions. Volunteering at IU Methodist was also a major factor in growing my skills/strengths because of the high number of patient/family interaction and EMR work. I believe my skills and strengths will be very useful for my internship when working on sleep studies and working with data. I may need to be responsible for communicating with patients and families as well as going through their responses to our nightly diaries.

At the start of my internship, my focus was primarily on training and conducting research on Actigraph wrist watches. I learned how to configure and initialize data collected from these devices. Additionally, I took on the responsibility of organizing qualitative treatment data that was received by participants, using Excel. My role included sorting, categorizing, and identifying common themes among the data. This process was crucial as it condensed treatment choices and assisted in finding options with the goal of adolescents achieving quality sleep. 

Over time, my role on the team expanded. I became more involved in interpreting and analyzing data while participating in team meetings to discuss our findings. This allowed me to take an active role on the project. I have seen growth in my analytical skills as I gained experience as well as a deeper understanding of insomnia. My ability to work independently and be structured has improved, enhancing my confidence in communication and teamwork responsibilities. Furthermore, my understanding of the process on how research is conducted and dissected improved. This includes how to analyze research questions, organize data, and code for specific themes. Looking forward, I would love to continue improving my skills in leadership, teamwork, and communication, including growing in my ability to examine complex data. 

Successes and Challenges

A moment where I felt successful as an intern was when I determined an issue that prevented our actigraph watches from initializing. I was able to indentity that it was due to a faulty connection cord between the watch and computer. There were no indications of the cord functioning so I suggested for a replacement which solved our technical issues. Another time I felt successful was when I was tasked to download data from my watch onto the computer. On the first attempt, I accidentally deleted the data due to an error on the instructions. On the second attempt, I was able solve the issue independently leading to a successful download of data. Recently, I started another project on qualitative treatment which involved organizing data on an Excel spreadsheet. Although I had little to no prior experience using Excel, I became proficient after receiving guidance from my supervisor, Maureen. She trained me to clean out the data and find common themes from the responses. I can now easily complete my tasks on Excel while using shortcuts as well. These given tasks and experiences have shown me how critical it is to handle research data carefully and have strengthened my technical skills. This would be beneficial for me in my future career as an OT specifically in collecting data and paperwork. 

One of the most major challenges I have experienced has been participant recruitment. We have not been able to start the study that I am involved on due to individuals not meeting the criteria. In order to receive the right participants, we plan to promote the study on different social media platforms to target the appropriate audience. Another challenge that we encountered was initializing our watches in order to move them on to the pilot phase. It was a long lengthy process trying to connect them to our servers but with the assistance of IT members, we were able to get them running. A personal challenge I faced was acquiring general knowledge on actigraph watches. It is critical for me to know basic information about these watches as I will be responsible for handling them in future DREAMIT studies. After communicating with my supervisor, I was provided with several helpful articles that contained details that would help me gain a deeper understanding of these devices. These challenges have shown me the importance of trying to solve problems independently, but it's just as important to ask for assistance when needed. I believe knowing when to ask for help will be significant in strengthening my communication skills.