Internship Experience
At the Dayton Regional STEM School, all students are required to complete a 72-hour internship experience. In order to complete this experience, students research a career field they would like to enter in Technical Reading and Writing to help identify the career outlook for their future occupation. This assignment decuments my experience searching for, completing, and reflecting upon my own internship experience, which I completed at the Dayton Children's Hospital.
Introduction
Career Exploration Report
To download my Career Exploration Report, click on the image of it above.
This report documents exploration of two careers and four potential internships related to those careers. Research was conducted about the two chosen careers, athletic training and dietetics. The main search engine used was the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Occupational Outlook Handbook to find essential information. All of this research resulted in the location of four specific internships. Clem & Thyme is the preferred internship because it would provide an overview on many skills required for the field in a personal, one-on-one level. Next steps include contacting this potential site to set up an internship and conducting research to find specific career related college programs.
Daily Logs
Day 1
On my first day, I wasn’t able to start working around the hospital just yet. Before I could start, I had to get a TB test to ensure that it was safe for me to be around patients who are ill. I also had to attend an orientation where I learned all of the emergency codes that I may hear, what to do if I see an emergency situation, how to properly dress and sanitize myself, and what I thought was most important, HIPPA. I learned that the federal legislation HIPPA was designed to safeguard patient confidentiality. This meant that anything I hear or see about a patient, I cannot tell anyone else. Also, I am unable to take any pictures that include a patient or their personal information.
Day 2
On day two, I got my badge which granted me access into certain parts of the hospital, as well as be a reference for the hospital’s emergency codes. We were given a map of all of the rooms that we were responsible for ensuring were clean. Our job included a training session about how to ensure that everything a sick patient may touch outside of their room remain properly sanitized. This consists of wall inserts, toys, elevator buttons, and more.
Day 3
On day three, my partner and I were doing our normal duties of toy cleaning and we discovered we were out of wipes. Hospitals use extremely powerful antibacterial wipes known as “Cavi Wipes”. They come in two different containers, one of which is the size of a large Clorox wipe container, and the other is the size of an Easter basket. We found our supervisor to tell her that we were out of wipes we were informed that all that was left in stock was the Easter basket containers. My partner suggested that we just put some of those wipes into the smaller bucket, and her idea was immediately shut down. Apparently due to a risk of cross-contamination, we are not allowed to touch the wipes before we use them. On this day I learned how safe hospitals must remain with germs.
Day 4
On day four, my partner and I were manning a coffee cart in the outpatient surgery wing on the second floor. In the corner there is a little children's nook for patients who are waiting to be taken to their rooms or siblings. I came across a brother and sister who were waiting for their sister to come out of surgery. I wanted to cheer them up and help time pass a little faster so I reached into my backpack and got out some pictures for us to color together.
Day 5
On day five, my partner and I were cleaning the sports medicine and orthopedic waiting room. We came across a little boy who we sat down with and offered some stickers to. He found a sticker of the Hulk and said it was his favorite. Then, he started telling us about how Doc McStuffins was her favorite character. He saw me reaching into my bag to get out a Doc McStuffins sticker for his sister and he jumped up and started going through my bag. He found strips of Dayton Children's tattoos and asked if we could do some and of course I said yes. After we did the tattoos he asked if he could take some for his sister.
Day 6
On day six, my partner was unable to make it to our shift and so I was sort of camping out in the main lobby, showing patients around when they needed help, cleaning used wagons, and playing with the kids I came across. I was walking a grandmother to the surgery waiting room so she could see her grandson. We were walking past the Dragonflyer in the Take Flight Gallery and she had asked what it was for. I then explained the newest theme behind Dayton Children's being "things that fly" to honor Dayton’s rich aviation heritage and innovation in flight.
Day 7
On day seven, my partner and I were standing at our coffee cart, which is one of the few services that the hospital had to provide comfort for worried parents. A mother came up to us and asked for a cup of coffee and began pouring it. After she was done she asked where the creamer was and my partner had directed her towards the powered creamer. The woman had already seemed upset and tired, like she wasn't feeling the best, and she said she was upset to realize we didn't have real creamer and she had asked us where the trash can was so she could throw the cup away. I felt truly bad for her and asked her to hang on for a second. It took me about 5 minutes, but I ran up to the Ronald McDonald house and got her a small cup of creamer. I felt like I made her day a little better.
Day 8
On day eight, I got to spend a day shadowing the Physical Therapy Rehabilitation team. Within my first five minutes of being in the therapy gym I got to help a patient in a game where I held a bucket or "pond" and they had to try and throw weighted frogs into it to help improve their muscle strength. I also had the pleasure of following one patient from physical therapy where they had to balance in a lunge position, pick up colored coins, tell me the color, then place the coin into a bank, to speech therapy. In speech therapy they had to look at cards with various objects or animals and describe features about them using proper grammar.
Day 9
On day nine, a group of girls that participated in the job shadow day at other departments and all sat through a presentation where we learned information about careers in healthcare like pay and degrees required. It was really interesting to discover that Physical Therapists much have their Doctorate but there is no Masters, so you go from Bachelors to Doctorate.
Day 10
On day ten, my partner and I spent our time talking about my Physical Therapy job shadow and her day shadowing a Nurse. Before we clocked out for the day we had to turn in our badges until we signed up to come back again.
Reflection
My internship has helped me develop a love for my future as I choose a college for my career. When I walked into my internship at the Dayton Children’s Hospital, I was placed on “Sparkle Squad”. Going in, I didn’t think I was going to learn anything about the medical field. My duties consisted of maintaining and cleaning all waiting areas, water fountains, and elevators, restocking magazines, cleaning wall unit toys and toys in waiting areas, pick up and throw away any noted trash, straighten toys and magazines to look orderly, and lastly, pick up magazines in Family Resource Center to distribute to waiting areas. The qualifications needed were excellent customer service skills, ability to relate easily to children and families, love for children, calm attitude, polity and dependable, maintain confidentially of children, families and staff, ability to relate easily to professional staff, remain patient and non-judgmental, ability to process information accurately, deal with the public, process excellent communication and listening skills, and lastly good health and cleanliness was essential. I felt like I wasn’t going to have any real interaction with patients, or see what they were really going through.
Every morning my partner and I would clock in, and get out backpacks. We had to make sure that they were stocked with Cavi Wipes, gloves, and most importantly, lots of stickers, activity books, crayons, and the occasional toy or two. Sometimes we were able to go down to the maintenance area of the hospital and get more wipes, but we were able to see everything that went into making sure that the hospital stays germ free, and the wonderful people that fill those duties.
Throughout my internship, I was able to meet, observe and even work with some medical professionals, exploring their responsibilities and typical tasks. I can now confidentially say that I want to work in Physical Therapy/ Athletic Training. Both careers deal with the anatomy of the body, which I find fascinating, and the general wellbeing of the patient.
The day that I got to spend in the Physical Therapy wing I was able to interact with real patients with real problems, allowing me to have an in-depth look into the field and all of its parts. I have always believed that Physical Therapy was where athletes or post-surgery patients went to recover, but during my time here I learned that it was so much more. I discovered that there is a whole other side of physical therapy for people with special needs. The exercises that they do are completely different, and the dynamic of the therapists is completely different. I watched as one patient went from calmly going an exercise with me that was structured more like a game, to lashing out on the therapist and she had to wrap her legs around the patient to ensure that they did not injure themselves.
I got the opportunity to participate in an activity where the patient had to throw a weighted toy shaped as a frog into a “pond”, which was a bucket that I was holding. The exercise was meant to help the patient stay balanced, and build up some strength in his arms. After ten throws, he would have to switch arms then I would have to scoot back with the pond.
Another patient I was able to follow also played the frog in a pond activity, and then I got to move with her to speech therapy before I was asked to leave so the therapist and her could have a conversation about what was happening with her at home.
Overall, my internship was wonderful, and I was definitely able to get my foot in the door. I now feel like I have a place that I could eventually turn into a job where I would feel delighted to make my living as well as knowing that I am making someone else’s life better by just having a warm smile on my face and stickers in my back pocket. When I had to go back to the hospital once for a family member, my face did not go unrecognized. I was greeted by almost everyone I saw by name, and I felt honored to be able to do the same for them. There really is no feeling that compares to how I felt when I was making a child smile before going into a scary test, or while they were waiting for a sibling to get out of a big surgery. I would love to go back next year and continue to make children smile and take away their worries.