Internship

About the Internship

At my internship site, we study humans and exercise to try to benefit participants and provide the advantages of exercise.

I am primarily working on two projects. One of them is studying the effects of resistance training on fitness and exercise efficacy in prediabetic participants. The other is studying the use of kinesio-tape with delayed onset muscle soreness.

Our research aims to study the effects of strength training on the physiology and psychology of individuals and specific populations. This work has the potential to positively impact anyone who has the ability to resistance train. Resistance training has many proven benefits, including lowered risk of many diseases, decreased risk of injury, improved functional independence, and even improved quality of life.

Workplace

Some skills that I have that will help me to contribute to my internship site as a professional and team member are communication, teamwork, organization, and time management. I have improved these skills through my previous work experience, like working in a PT clinic, and through various volunteer and course work. One example of how I developed these skills through my work is when I scheduled patients. I had to communicate with them and the PT for availability, work with the office coordinator, keep the dates and times organized, and manage the time for and between appointments. All of these skills are fundamental to working in a research environment and will help me to succeed within this internship.

An example of how these skills will be helpful can be explained with one example for my lab, and that is scheduling. With the projects we are working on, there is a lot of variability in when things may be scheduled. When one of us schedules a subject, we have to communicate with each other to see who is able to be present for the visit. As a team we must navigate all the differing availability and work together when and where we are able. We have to be flexible and find ways to help when schedules don't allow us to be physically present at every visit. We all have to manage our own time and responsibilities along with the needs of the lab, and must stay organized to clearly communicate and record information. Individually I will use all of these skills to accomplish my independent work and report it back to my supervisors.

This year I have been a very versatile team member. I have been referred to as a "utility player" because I am able to help out in a lot of different areas on various projects. I started out more centralized on a couple of projects, and was gradually given more tasks as the semesters progressed. I was able to help get participants for our studies, help in the grant writing process for future studies, and organize data for interpretation and use. All of these things helped to progress the research effort further and it was fulfilling to play a role in each part.

As I use my skills more and more, I will be able to improve them and work more efficiently. This will help me to be successful in graduate school and as a professional in the medical field because the same themes apply. A core aspect of both is collaboration with other students or professionals. Managing time and staying organized are necessities with a heavy work load or patient load. Building upon these skills and many others during my internship help to set me up to do well in my future education and work.

Successes and Challenges

Two times I have felt successful as an intern so far this semester have been figuring out a complex data set and writing my first real abstract to present at the IUURC this winter. Towards the beginning of the semester, my supervisor gave me a set of data to work with that was from a study that had a lot of different hands on it and had been going on for several years. There were several different ways that the data had been logged, and some discrepancies in subject numbers and dates of visits. My job was to use the several sources to figure out the correct order of visits, subjects, and ensure that each data set was properly lined up. The task took a few weeks, but I figured out where the issues occurred and was able to remedy them. My supervisor said she gave me the task because of my attention to detail, so I was glad to hear that and proud that I was able to figure out the data set.

Another time I felt successful was recently when I wrote an abstract to submit for a presentation at a research conference over a study that I have been helping to do a lit-review for. I have never written a true abstract before, so writing it over something that is quite complex and that I’ve only been involved with recently was challenging. I felt successful that my first attempt was pretty good and that I was able to revise and submit it.

From these successes I learned that perseverance pays off and that somethings just take time to figure out. Not all successes come easily, like in the first case, and some of them do more so based on time and effort previously invested.

Two things that have been the most challenging part of this semester have been balancing getting hours with my school work. My internship is not highly structured, so I can choose when I do a lot of my work. This is a double edged sword because it is nice to be able to do work at 9pm after my school work is done for the day, but it is also hard to prioritize it when I have an upcoming exam or due date. Something I am trying to do to overcome this is setting a goal task for work for specific days at the beginning of the week and holding myself to that. For example, with recruitment I make a lot of phone calls, so I’ve set a goal of making 5-10 phone calls on average per weekday. This allows me flexibility still, but gives me some structure.

Another challenging part of the semester for me has been the division between myself and most of the people in my lab. They are very inclusive so it is to no fault of anyone, but all the other people I work with regularly are in graduate school, so there is a gap in levels of understanding sometimes. I find that despite being a good student and retaining most of what I’ve learned regarding the topics we research, there is simply a lot that I have yet to learn and I can’t know everything that they do because I am several years behind in education and experience. That was a challenging thing for me to accept because I don’t love being the least knowledgeable about things. There isn’t much I can do about this, I just aim to continue to learn and make myself the most knowledgeable that I can be with my given position.

These experiences have been very valuable and I've practiced skills that will help me be a better student and professional. The method of planning my time at the beginning of the week will continue to be helpful. Learning how to manage my time with flexibility is super important when it comes to studying in graduate school, and finding ways to communicate with people who have different levels of understanding is essential when working in healthcare.