Professionalism

The first few weeks in my lab I always had somebody with me because I was being trained. Once my training was over, I had to do the experiments individually. Originally I was extremely scared to work alone because I was afraid of messing up our week long experiments. This was due to the fact that I work based off of my notes because I don't have protocols for everything. I had to get over my fear of feeling inadequate and better develop my communication skills by learning how to ask questions when I wasn't 100% sure on the steps of the experiment. I also had to utilize my leadership skills and take charge of what I was doing on my own. It helped me and continues to help me build on my confidence in my own capabilities. Overall, this experience so far has had the greatest impact on my conflict resolution skills and adaptability. When I'm unsure of what to do or what calculations to make I don't freak out as much anymore, but instead figure out ways to solve my problems. Now I am not only able to perform these experiments alone and use the extremely huge and expensive radiation machine on my own, but it also doesn't bother me when the experiment changes, and I don't have issues with feeling panicked.