Tag: internship

Learning Goals: 

1. Practice focus and concentration (Self-management)
2. Practice “bouncing back” after adversity, mistakes, and failures (Self-management)

The first learning goal that I’ve been working on is focus and concentration, which although I selected before I started the internship, now looking back, I think this learning goal was definitely fitting for the internship because the working hours that we were given for this internship were substantially longer working blocks than the previous medical internship. For back-stage, we had to work around 6 hours each time, and for front stage, it could range anywhere from 4-5 hours. So at this internship, because I was working directly with the customers, it was important for me to always be alert because I never knew whenever a customer would come up and ask questions, and it would reflect badly on the institution if their workers (me) was not doing their job, or slacking off. The second learning goal that I chose was because that’s also something that I was really nervous about, similarly to my first internship. In general I’m someone who gets really embarrassed by mistakes, and I felt as if by working at an internship, those mistakes would only be magnified because the scale of the system in which I was working in was larger and would affect more people than just myself. However, I think that the way that the mentors trained me for making mistakes during this internship was a lot better than the previous internship I was at because it felt like at this internship, the mentors understood that it was only natural for their workers, not just their interns, to make mistakes. so they told us beforehand that it was okay if we didn’t know something, we should just tell the customer to wait and request help from one of the more veteran employees that knew the answer. It also helped a lot that they had a lot of new college interns that they were training, so it felt like I wasn’t the only one who was unsure of what to do. They were very supportive with teaching all the new interns and made an environment where we felt comfortable to ask questions when we didn’t know, instead of trying to figure out something by ourselves and possibly making a mistake as a result.

An impactful moment and Weiwuying for me was this one day where they were training a lot of new college interns (I didn’t know yet at the time), and so in the lobby where we were supposed to meet, there were a lot of other interns. When a mentor came to ask for the new interns who were supposed to work at Recital Hall that day to follow her, I didn’t follow because I thought she only meant the college interns that I saw at the lobby. But then after a few minutes of no mentors coming to pick me up from the lobby, I realized that I probably should have followed them and that I had made a mistake. So I remembered what they had said during the orientation, which was to message them if anything happens or if someone isn’t there to pick us up. So I sent a message on Line, and within less than a minute, a mentor had replied to me and was coming to pick me up. I was still debating on what to reply to the chat message when one of the mentors arrived at the lobby to take me to the Recital Hall. I was really surprised not only because of the speed at which she replied and came to meet me, but also the fact that it wasn’t some random employee or staff member that they had sent to pick me up, rather it was one of the higher up administration mentors that I had met on the day of the orientation. I was really surprised that they cared enough to come pick me up themselves even though it might’ve been a big inconvenience for them, because I’m sure they had better things to do/take care of, but they still made the effort to come pick up some lost high school intern. In that moment, I was just struck by how genuine the staff/mentors were and really impressed by the level of organization that they ran on in order to know exactly where everyone is at all times and to check who is supposed to pick up the interns on such a short notice. Then as we were walking up to the Recital Hall and even after we arrived, she didn’t seem angry, but was really receptive and enthusiastic to answer my questions about why she decided to work here, her past jobs, her experiences in the US, what she studied at school, etc. I think the same goes for a lot of the mentors and staff that I talked to throughout my time there. Their willingness to have a conversation with me and to answer my endless questions about their lives was just another indicator of their patience and ability to communicate/understand their their employees/interns.

This internship has influenced how and what I perceive myself to be doing after high school because I would have never really considered doing something like working in a museum because I don’t consider myself to be very competent or knowledgeable in that area, but after working here, I think I realized that some aspects of working in a cultural/arts center like this doesn’t require me to be very knowledgable on the work itself, but I could work reception or administration and still be able to be close to the art without needing to know absolutely everything about it. I would say that this internship has sparked my interest in doing some sort of internship like this again in college because I think being involved in this kind of community was really interesting and rewarding for me, but I don’t think it’s necessarily going to become my career path. However, I’m 90% sure that I’m going to find some kind of work like this in college to pass the time or to earn some income or to just do it for fun, if time allows, because I genuinely enjoyed my time here so I think perhaps being in an English environment where I can more confidently handle questions and communicate might only further that enjoyment. I’m not really sure how different a US culture center’s experience is from here at WeiWuYing, but I want to find out.

From this internship, I think I learned how important it is to be able to keep my professionalism throughout the time that I’m working. For example, one time we had a really rude customer that kept complaining about everything the staff did, kept cutting off the staff anytime someone tried to reply/answer his questions, didn’t listen to what we said, etc. I was starting to get the urge to roll my eyes because I was so frustrated with him and how he was treating everyone at the reception, but then my mentor who was beside me and also kept getting cut off by the guy, was able to remain calm despite it all. Essentially the customer wanted to mail something to someone using WeiWuYing’s reception desk (which isn’t a service that they offer), but at the same time complain about every little thing he felt like was wrong about WeiWuYing. Since the customer didn’t want to listen to any staff, my mentor just nodded a lot and accepted what he said even when he kept cutting everybody off and eventually the guy left. I think to be able to remain level headed as to not further worsen the problem was really smart and I have no idea how my mentor was able to stay calm during it, but then it also taught me that I also need to beware of separating my own feelings from my job because my actions are going to affect the institution, so I can’t get frustrated or angry at the customers, I need to treat them all with the same amount of respect and amicability.

One insight that I gained from talking with all the different mentors and staff that I worked with is that there are so many different paths you can take to end up where you are. My favorite part of working the internship there was that in the times where there weren’t any customers, or all the people were inside the concert halls, so we could sit down was that in that time space, I could talk to my mentors about their own lives. It was really unexpected for me to learn about how much their paths differed to each other in coming to work here at WeiWuYing, and how different their lives were in terms of interests and other jobs. It shed a whole new light on me for what I felt like I could do and the amount of possibilities out there for me after listening to them because I think often, this notion of following a singular path – going to college for a major, following that major in grad school, getting a job in that field – is emphasized, that I forgot how much else you could be/do until I had listened to them. Some of them were music majors, dancers, (still) work as administration for the Marriott Hotel, are part of LGBTQ Hotlines Organizations, etc. Everything they do is really diverse and I think they just made me realize that I won’t be “tied down” to sticking to a path, that I still have a lot of choices and opportunities to pursue my hobbies.

• Internship Working Hours/Schedule
• Pre-Internship Reflection Essay
• Flipgrid Reflection 1
• Flipgrid Reflection 2

Over the past few months, I was given the wonderful opportunity to learn about and further my understanding of myself and the medical field by working at Jenn-Liang Medical Clinic on weekends and during weekdays. Here is a final reflection of my thoughts on how the internship went, how I grew, and what this internship meant to me.

Short Reflections Throughout the Process:

1. Flipgrid Reflection 1 
2. Flipgrid Reflection 2

Learning Goal ATLs:

1. Practice “bouncing back” after adversity, mistakes, and failures (Self-management)
2. Identify trends and forecast possibilities (Thinking)

I think bouncing back after adversity was definitely something it took a while for me to learn, and I would say I’m definitely nowhere near to perfecting that aspect of my life yet. But being at the clinic and being new made me have to constantly get used to making mistakes and being faced with situations that I didn’t particularly know how to solve. Sometimes when patients ask unexpected questions I didn’t know how to answer or the blood pressure machines fail in front of them, of course it was embarrassing for me, but I didn’t even have time to dwell too much on my mistakes because I had to put on a false sense of confidence and come up with a solution or an answer that satisfied them. Ultimately, a lot of what being in the medical field is, is to reassure your patients that they’re okay, and so even when I thought I was failing or making a mistake, I had to learn not to let that show through. I think by the end, I grew thicker skin, especially to making mistakes and asking questions that could lead me to feeling like I failed a task, but it was definitely a lot easier to overcome than when I had first started out. Also, because I wasn’t as good at Chinese as I should’ve been to work there, I definitely had to pick up on trends and possible outcomes very early on. I slowly picked up different tips and tricks for working there and recognizing the different trends. For example, we had to take their temperatures and blood pressures in the order their insurance cards were lined up, but if I couldn’t read their names when working reception, then I had to memorize the order in which the patients came through the door so I could take their temperatures in the right order. Or instead of looking at their names when matching the files to the person’s insurance cards, I would search for the files by looking at their insurance card numbers because it was much easier and efficient for me to recognize that instead of searching for names. I think the daily life of the clinic and the stability of knowing what kind of work laid in front of me for the day also helped me to be able to identify those trends and adapt accordingly.

I think the most impactful moment at the clinic was when there came in an elderly couple who walked into the doctor’s office (where I was shadowing that day) with the elderly man’s hands on the shoulders of his wife, who walked in front of him. They were walking slowly, clearly struggling and backs hunched, but there was a jovial way in which they carried themselves, which became evident as soon as the elderly woman talked. I had known my whole life that I have a soft spot for elderly people, and after seeing so many in the clinic already, I already have had to desensitize myself slightly  in order to not get too attached to every person that walks into the clinic. But in the middle of a Sunday morning, after having sat in the office and seen the doctor conference with what had to be over 25 patients at that point, I was suddenly jolted awake by their presence. When the women sat her husband down, who had been struggling with digestion and insomnia, and started to animatedly talk to the doctor with more enthusiasm than I would expect from a elderly woman was dealing with her own health issues, I was shocked to see her talking to the doctor with such a friendly and happy attitude. The doctor prescribed the man a shot (with nutrients to boost his energy), prescribed some medicine, and sent them to the back to get the shot. Obviously, I got up and opened the door for them and the elderly lady smiled and thanked me before they slowly made their way towards the back. I remember thinking throughout the entire consultation that I was sad because of their situation and I felt frustrated I (and the clinic) couldn’t do much else for them. When the doctor and I were having a discussion later on, he said to me that yes, an important part of being a doctor is having a good relationship with your patients, and yes, it’s sad that there’s not much else we can do for them, but sometimes, at certain points in the medical field, there’s not much else you can do. I think this moment impacted me the most because firstly, I really like elderly people and I think they deserve to live a life free of such ailing pains, especially after having already worked so hard for a lifetime. Also secondly, I think it hit on a lot of reasons why I wanted to work in medicine in the first place, but I was also confronted by the realizations that I’m not going to be able to help everyone, and that I needed to come to terms with being able to set aside my emotions and sympathy in order to be a good doctor for them (which I saw my mentor able to do, and was also the message in the discussions we had).

Interestingly, a lot of why I joined this internship was because I didn’t know if medicine was something that I wanted to do, and I honestly didn’t think that I would find an answer during this internship. But, even though I went through a lot of ups and downs through this internship regarding thinking if I liked it, if I think I could work in this environment in the future, if I wanted to put myself through all those years of medical school to pursue this, the internship definitely made things a lot more clear for me. It introduced me to a lot of different jobs within the medical field itself, and I saw another side of it, not just a large hospital with thousands of patients. I saw first hand how science could be applied practically and how easy it could be. I would say that now, I’m pretty interested in actually pursuing medicine, not for the sake of someone else, but because I was introduced to its humanity and the different dimensions of what it can be, other than a stereotypical large hospital. If I go into medicine in the future, I would be proud to say that I would be doing it for my own sake and interests.

As they say, fake it till you make it. I think in the whole process of applying and interning, I had to reinvent myself or adopt some sense of false confidence in what I was doing. I had completely no idea what I was doing, and that was the fear. It was a fear of not knowing, and therefore, not being able to do something well, which is ironic because the whole purpose of the internship is to learn. In the interviews, I had to find ways to portray myself in the best light possible and show off my best characteristics. In the clinic, I had to put on an air of confidence in front of the patients and nurses. Even at home, when communicating with my mentors, I had to look like I was in complete control of my schedule and knew what I was talking about. There was a lot of what felt like pretending at first. But as time wore on, I think that pretending either became a part of me, or rather it was me all along, and I just magnified that part of my personality, because I did gradually become the more confident person that I kept having to be. So I think that mindset of thinking you can actually do it goes along way in how well you’re able to do it, and how well I think I ended my internship experience. Sure it wasn’t always smooth sailing, especially at the beginning and middle when I had no idea what I was doing, but the more I learned, the more confident in myself I could become.

I think the most unexpected insight in this experience was how interactive my mentors and the other staff at the clinic were with not only their patients, but us as interns. They remembered the patients that came by regularly and asked them about how their health was progressing, the doctor bought food for the people that were working, the nurses had conversations with us when business was slow. They showed so much compassion and friendliness with us and the patients that it felt like a completely different world than what I was expecting. They didn’t get angry when we made a mistake, encouraged us to ask questions, and never made us feel like we were bothering them when so clearly, they could finish their work faster if we weren’t there. I think I saw a different side to the nurses and doctors than I would have thought I would see, and their whole demeanor made my experience at the clinic, and my perceptions of what hospital life is like, much better and warmer than I could ever thank them for.