Week 3:
The fun continues

July 3, 2018

Week three and I am happier than ever. I have seen over 100 knee x-rays so far, and I am nearly halfway done with my data collection. I have settled in nicely and love coming to work! Data collection can be long and monotonous, but my fellow interns and I have figured out a way to keep us focused. When we have been sitting too long staring on our computer screens, we go on some adventures in the hospital. It’s huge, and our ID badges will get us into most places, so we take 10-15 minute breaks to try and navigate through the maze of the hospital. These excursions definitely make data collection a little easier and more exciting.

Every Tuesday I meet with my PI to make sure we are on the same page for the project. I am lucky because some of my fellow interns only see their PI’s every two weeks or so. I am glad I have a regular meeting with mine, this ensures I am actually doing what I need to be doing and not what I think I need to be doing which helped this week! I met with Dr. De, and we figured out I have been making data collection harder for myself than necessary. Thankfully we caught this early it took me a day to redo the 50 patients I have already entered, but I am glad it was fixed at 50 patients instead of after the full 120.

One of the cool parts of this internship is that we are guaranteed 20 hours of shadowing in whatever department we want. I was scheduled to shadow Dr. De in the trauma room Wednesday. This meant I got to wear scrubs all day and tour the surgical wing, even though there was no trauma it was still a fun experience. The summer months are considered to be peak trauma season for pediatrics because of kids falling off their bikes or getting hurt while playing outside. I may not have gotten to see a trauma surgery today, but I am scheduled to go back into the trauma room on July 5^th so I will be able to see a surgery or two then!

Throughout my three weeks here I have realized that everyone here at Children’s wants to help us interns get the most out of our experience. The providers and RA’s are so helpful and try to get us involved in anything we are interested in. While the research is a major part of the internship, the staff also want to help us explore professional interests to assist in figuring out what we want to do in the future. Cornell Alumni Patrick Carry is especially helpful here. He is always asking critical questions to make sure we understand our projects and understand why we are doing them.

Every day I am more and more excited to get to work and cannot wait to see all the things the next 7 weeks have in store for me! Stay tuned, next week I start writing the manuscript for my paper which might lead to me being a published author!