Project
Business Description
My 3 week internship was at Mercy Regional Medical Center. Mercy Regional Medical Center is an 82-bed, acute-care hospital in Durango, Colorado. They are Southwest Colorado's largest and most technologically advanced medical facility.
LINK Description
Animas High School offers a unique program to their juniors. Leading Internships for New Knowledge sends juniors on three week internships in the field of their choice. During LINK, students have no regular classes as they spend 30-40 hours a week with mentors in the workplace, learning how to apply their skills outside the classroom.
Anticipation and Preparation
At first I had contacted the Offices of the Forensic pathologists. In Salt Lake City in an attempt to obtain an internship with one of them. Unfortunately I never heard back from them. So instead I reached out to my cousin who is a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) at Mercy Regional Medical Center. I asked him if I could intern under him and he thought it was a great idea. After the initial talk it was all smooth sailing from there. One thing that I had hoped to get out of this internship was to see if I was interested in the medical field and see if it was a good fit for me. There were a couple things that I wanted to bring to the business was an open mind, great listening skills so I could retain the information given to me. The mark that I wanted to leave at Mercy was my age and my work ethic in the real world. I was the youngest person in my area of the hospital and because of that some people thought I was not capable of completing more difficult tasks. I was able to change the minds of some of the older people around me because I was able to complete the tasks that they gave and completed them well. I wanted to show them that even though I was younger, I could still complete difficult tasks.
LINK Reflection
One skill that I used during my Internship was quick thinking. Quick thinking was a skill that I had to use a bunch within my internship. There were situations where quick thinking was extremely important. Such as in the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit) within the hospital. There was a situation where they had to restrain someone because they were being violent after anesthesia. I had to hand them specific things in order to restrain this person and prevent this person from hurting someone else. I believe that I have grown through my internship because I personally feel like I felt like am more prepared for life after high school and college. It showed me the true independence of life after school. You truly support yourself. I believe that the most important skill that I learned during my internship was the ability to calm someone down after anesthesia. There was this person that was freaking out because the anesthesia had not fully worn off yet. The way that the PACU nurses calmed this person just by talking to them was extremely fascinating. It is very important for Mercy to have interns in the future so that they can educate our future generations so that we can advance modern medicine and be able to survive much more injuries than before. This internship experience has been very helpful with helping me with overseeing my future because it gave me a full view of the medical field.