A Reflection of the Month

My internship has given me many opportunities to talk to people in the hospital environment about how they got where they are today. It made me realize that there are more than one way to get where you want to go. Also, you don't have to know exactly what you want to do after high school. For example, Susan, in our office, studied sociology in college, but she was able to get a job in the infection c

ontrol office. Eric is a phlebotomist at the hospital. He started working at the hospital when he was 19 as a security guard. Then he decided to go to school to become a phlebotomist and he is considering going back to school to become a nurse. Sherilyn started as an RN in the ER. Then she worked in the ICU, then as a transplant coordinator, and then she became an infection control nurse. By talking to these people, I've realized that is you don't have a set path after high school, it's okay. You still have time to figure out what you want to do with your life.

This influenced me to look at my other options. I used to think that I wanted to go to school to become an endocrinologist, but then throughout my internship, I was able to familiarize myself with other roles in the hospital. Now I'm considering studying Lab Sciences. I can start working in 5 years rather than the 12 years it takes to become an endocrinologist. And I can continue my education after I start working.

Through my internship, I have been able to develop my skills such as research, observation and problem solving skills. I believe that all of these skills will benefit me as I further my education. There will always be times where you have to do a little bit of your own research to fully understand a topic. I've had to practice this skill throughout my internship to better understand what an infection control RN does and why they do it.

My project started as a curiosity. I wanted to familiarize myself with the importance of hand hygiene in the hospital, common pathogens, and proper hand hygiene. With all of the information that I've gathered through research, I decided to turn it into something useful. I've been creating a poster that displays all of the infformation that I have gathered. This poster will be on display on Hand Hygiene Day, so that hospital staff can refamiliarize themselves with this information.

As I mentioned before, my internship has allowed me to see a little of all of the roles in the hospital. When you think of hospitals, you think of doctors and nurses, but in reality it is way more than that. You have engineers, lab techs, phlebotomists, nutritionalists, patient experience personnell, infection control and preventionalists, surgeons, and EVS. Even further than that, nurses that work in different departments all have different experiences. For example, the nurses that work in the ICU has a higher stress job than the nurses that work in the Spine and Joint Center. This experience has opened up my eyes to appreciate all the roles in the hospitial, big and small. If you take out any role in the hospital, the hospital will not be able to function in the way that they do now. It made me have more appreciation for everybody who runs the hospital.