Emily Malsch
STEP Reflection
Project: Internship
For my STEP signature project, I travelled to Memphis, Tennessee to shadow a Physician Assistant at the world-renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Then, I continued to Knoxville, Tennessee where I job shadowed a doctor at Parkwest Medical Center. I was alongside a healthcare professional each day and observed many patients undergoing care. I got to experience what it is like to work in a medical setting, interact with patients, and I learned a lot about medicine and care-giving. Both experiences were extremely valuable, informational, and enriching to my current education at OSU.
This project was transformational in my understanding of myself and my views of the world. I think it is easy to decide your career path when you come to college without much thought of why you want to do it. I’ve always wanted to pursue a career in the medical field, but I never stopped to reflect on why I wanted to do this. This experience reassured me that I picked the right career path and reminded me why I wanted to join the medical field in the first place. I think this experience was essential to me regaining confidence that I picked the right career path; I understand better now that medicine is where I belong. Shadowing at St. Jude’s has also transformed some of my ideas of health care in the U.S. I have taken a couple classes at Ohio State that focused on U.S. health care and the health care of other countries, and I had formed some ideas from what I learned. But, experiencing health care in a hospital that doesn’t ever charge their patients for care truly changed my point of view. Learning about something and experiencing it first-hand are two completely different things, and this experience has truly opened my eyes to the issues of U.S. health care.
Both of these experiences in my project pushed me out of my comfort zone; I am an inherently shy person and a lot of health care is working with people. Being in that environment where you collaborate with other health care professionals and interact with patients was eye-opening for me. While at first it was a little uncomfortable for me, by the second or third day I was talkative and open with both the patients and health care professionals. This transformation surprised me and showed me that maybe I am not as shy as I thought.
My self-reassurance that I picked the right career path developed through observing the interactions between patients and health care professionals. As I said before, this project reminded me of why I wanted to join the medical field in the first place. When you’re in school studying medicine, a lot of the classes focus on the science side of health care, and it is easy to forget about the people side of medicine. I think this was happening to me before I went on this trip. Seeing the health care professionals interact with patients and their parents was transformational for me. You don’t just fix the medical problem, you care for each individual, and your role in their life is life-changing. I saw the hope and love that came from families at St. Jude’s when the health care professionals visited them. I saw the relationships that have been formed between the doctors and the patients. Patients would smile when the PA came into the room and joke around with them; the parents would be open and thankful for the health care professionals. I was reminded that health care is about helping people and that is what I have always wanted to do.
Shadowing at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital transformed my ideas about health care because I had never been at a hospital that didn’t charge their patients for anything before I did this project. When I learned about health care in school, I thought that the U.S. had an okay health care system; although clearly flawed, I thought it was the only way health care could fit into our capitalist country. However, during this project, I saw so many patients that were unbelievably grateful for the care they were receiving, and it broke my heart because they were the lucky ones that were able to receive free health care. Their thankfulness and new hope through St. Jude’s really changed my mind; the interactions with the patients were crucial to my transformation. This experience of caring for people changed my views; it made me a more soft-hearted person. After seeing how health care worked at St. Jude’s, I believe that there is a way to reform our health care so that there is less disparity.
As mentioned above, job shadowing at both of these hospitals was transformative in my people skills. This project pushed me out of my comfort zone. I spent a lot of time with my assigned proctor, and I had to create small talk at times. This seems like a simple thing for most people, but I can struggle with making small talk with people. However, since I spent so much time with my assigned PA and doctor, I was forced to make small talk, and that was a big step for me. I am much more confident in my ability to talk with people I don’t know now. I also pushed myself out of my comfort zone by asking medical questions whenever I didn’t understand something. This was hard because usually I don’t like to admit that I don’t know something, but once I started asking questions, it was so beneficial. I also introduced myself to patients and families and chatted with them. This aspect really helped me make the most of this project, and now I am much more comfortable being more outgoing.
These transformations that came from my project are valuable to my academic, professional, and personal goals. This project reassured me that I have chosen the right major and the right future career path. I learned so much about how it is to work in the medical field and how a hospital operates, and I know that’s where I want to be. Since I am already in my second year, it is very important that I am confident that I am doing what I want to do, and this project has helped me do that. This experience has also given me a lot of information that will be useful in my future classes. I learned a lot about medicine, anatomy, microbiology, and hospital care. This is stuff I have learned a little bit about in school, and I will be learning more about in the next couple years, so it was good to be exposed to it now. My professional goals are to continue onto Physician Assistant school, and I believe that this experience will be crucial to my success. I am prepared for what the job of a PA looks like and will be more prepared for the schooling. Having this great experience will show schools that I am serious about and experienced in this field. Overall, this experience ended up being very beneficial to my academic, personal, and professional goals.
Emily I loved reading about how this internship experience was reassuring for you that you have chosen the right field and that it pushed you outside of your comfort zone. I can imagine how empowering it must be to now know that even though you’re naturally shy you do in deed have the ability to strike up conversations with people you don’t know which is something you will end up doing on a daily basis as a PA. I’m glad that shadowing at St Jude’s also got you to thinking about some of the flaws in our healthcare system – perhaps you will end up doing some policy work at some point as well.