My internship has really helped me visualize myself working with patients and being apart of the medical field. It helped me confirm what I already knew. Also, because of my internship I came to the revitalization that I could open my own little clinic. I want to work with organisations and companies who want to help low income families and people from different backgrounds just like Las Palmas Medical Group. Even though I spent most of my time with the medical assistants I could not picture myself doing their job everyday. The MAs work so hard, but through out my internship I observed that they don't get treated with the respect they deserve. There is usually a difference between the way the patient treats the MA and the doctor. I do not feel like their work gets recognized enough. I still want to be a neuropsychologist. My internship gave me a better perspective on how I should work with medical assistants and nurses when I hopefully become a doctor.
My internship left me very excited. It reminded me of how important it is to me to help people. Often times we saw patients on a really bad day and I always tried to make them smile. It is a very rewarding feeling. It left me inspired to continue my academic path so I can get where I want to go. My Internship helped me shape what kind of doctor I want to be.
2 Comments
Photo # 1: I decided to include this photo because it captures how I start my every morning. I usually wait inside my parents' car until 8:55 am so I am always 5 minutes early. Photo #2 and 3: I chose to show this document because I get to help the doctor explain this document to many patients. I translate it for the patient. I have done it so many times; I pretty much know it by heart. Photo 4: This is basically our entire clinic it looks small, but it has twelve main rooms: 4 are offices, 3 are rooms for the patients, 1 is the lab, 1 bathroom, 1 break room, 1 closet and 1 is the vitals room. The hallway is so long and I get to go up and down the hallway multiple times a day. Photo 5: These are items that I need to have on me at all times. I need to have my school ID on display so patients know I am student and for them to know my name. I also need to have pens on me at all times to take notes and fill out paperwork. I usually end up accumulating a lot of pens by the end of the day. Photo 6 and 7: I am in charge of logging all of the lab referral forms we give out to patients. I have to put the patient's name, Date of birth, and the lab work they were ordered. Photo 8: This is our main work space in the vitals room. We our main computer and printer. This is the neatest the desk has ever looked, there is usually papers and pens all over the place. I cleaned it for the photo. Photo 9: These are some of the tools I use to take patients vitals. I take their temperature, pulse, and blood pressure. Photo 10: This is the laptop I use sometimes when the main computer is being used. I use it to look up patient's charts to fill out referrals or to look up Icd 10. Photo 11: This is a map of the clinic. The map makes it seem very big but it is a very small and cozy clinic. I spend most of my time in the vitals room. Photo 12: Other vitals I take are patient's weight and height. Also, when there is not a patient in the room I sit on the chair on the right. Photo 13: While I sit on my chair I do my tasks and talk to my coworker. I usually only sit for about 5 minutes before we need to bring someone in. Photo 14: This is the machine and computer where I learned to scan documents and fax them. I was very proud of myself. Photo 15: This is a shelf in my mentor's office. I leave my bag in here. I come into my mentor's office throughout the day to get water from my bag or just to talk to my mentor. Part 2 - Internship Project:
For my internship project I created a brochure about mental health awareness. My main questions for the brochure were, What is mental health? and why is it important? The project was important because In the clinic they do not talk about mental health, and also because overall mental health is not a topic that everyone is willing to talk about. Especially in Latino culture, It has a bad connotation. The steps I took to make the brochure were fairly simple. I started of by doing research and compiling information. Than I took the information I compiled and formatted it into a brochure. Lastly I had both of my mentors look over it and the doctor of the clinic. |