AHS LINK Internship
LINK stands for Leading Internships for New Knowledge. At Animas High School they offer a program to their students, usually in their junior year where they go out and find internships. These internships are where they spend three weeks outside of school in the field of their choice learning new knowledge and applying knowledge that they've learned already.
|
LINK prep and anticipation
When I heard that we were going to be doing internship junior year as a freshman I was super excited and a bit nervous because I didn't know what I would do for mine. As a junior I was fully excited. I couldn't wait to go into the world and be exploring potential areas i would want to pursue. When searching for an internship I emailed a variety of places, rock climbing companies, medical offices, and other outdoor business. I had a few calls back from places and went into an interview at San Juan Hand Therapy. After that interview I decided there is where I wanted to go for my LINK.
One challenge I had while trying to find a LINK was my age, many places couldn't accept me because I wasn't 18 and "didn't have enough experience yet." This was frustrating to hear no because a few more months of my life wouldn't make me an expert in a certain field and just because I was 18 I wasn't able to do the internship.
One challenge I had while trying to find a LINK was my age, many places couldn't accept me because I wasn't 18 and "didn't have enough experience yet." This was frustrating to hear no because a few more months of my life wouldn't make me an expert in a certain field and just because I was 18 I wasn't able to do the internship.
My internship: San Juan Hand Therapy!!
I reached out to the ladies at San Juan Hand Therapy and was able to spend my three weeks there. At San Juan Hand Therapy they help people with hand, wrist, and elbow problems and injuries. Through this opportunity I was not only able to meet the ladies that work here but was also able to meet the amazing patients and see the amazing improvements they make in their individual healing processes. You can see the San Juan Hand Therapy website here.
I believed this would be a great internship since I want to be a surgeon. Seeing the therapy and process people go through before and after surgery to be able to return to their normal life and return to the former abilities they had in their hands. I hoped to gain anatomical and medical knowledge and experience in the field, as well as observing and talking to patients and what they experience. |
Internship refelection and summary
For my internship I went to San Juan Hand Therapy in Durango, CO. While there I help the two therapists, Mary and Lani, as well as the office gal, Brenda, with their daily routine. I was putting together and creating new patient charts, confirming appointments, putting together schedules and the charts needed for the next day, sitting in on the therapy sessions and learning what injuries cause what anatomically as well as what can cause these injuries, creating splints, helping out around the office in general, learning anatomical vocabulary and anatomy of the hand, wrist, arm, and the nervous system in this area, and observing surgeries down the hall at Animas Surgical Hospital. I was able to form new and meaningful relationships with my mentors and was able to learn from others in the community.
|
I hope with me being in the clinic I bring another friendly face and lots of help for the ladies and patients. I also hope that with my presence in the clinic I was able to bring a good experience of what young people and high school students can accomplish and do for the community. I hope to represent teens and high schoolers and how mature we can be despite how some people perceive teens.
The mark I left on my internship was a helping and positive face and another friend to go hiking with or have a lunch date with. This is a great organization to intern at because you experience many different fields. You can focus on the business side, the therapy portion, or the surgical portion. I believe this is a great opportunity for students to have because this really helps them experience a field they are interested in pursuing and I encourage Mary to accept more internships in the future so they can have a similar experience. |
The overall experience was fun and interesting. The ladies I was working with were so nice and so caring toward the patients and everyone who walked into their clinic. I am so grateful of this experience because I believe this was a great opportunity for me to get involved with seeing all the patients before and after surgery. A few skills I was grateful to have going into this internship were my social skills and the anatomy class I had taken second semester. I was very very grateful for my social skills because I was talking to a lot of people a lot of the time. Anatomy helped me to understand what the therapist were talking about and the generality of what was going on. Since I want to be a surgeon, it was useful to see what people have to go through after the operation sometimes as well as what they try before they decide to get the operation. I was amazed at some of the patients stories and how hard they try to get better and how hard the therapist work to make them better. It was an amazing thing to experience and watch.
There was of course slow days, and days where I really wished I were out on a hike instead. On these days I reflected a lot and thought not only about how my experience but about the people they help and the impact they have on them. These days really brought out what drives me to keep pursuing a medical career and keep moving in my life in general. I want to help people.
This thought and watching surgery help me confirm not only that I want to help people but confirmed that I want to be a surgeon. One challenge this brought up for me was that I'm not sure which type of surgeon I want to be. I am still really interested in the brain and spine and how all he nerves work, but learning the anatomy of the hand and arm and observing those surgeries I can see that the brain isn't the only really cool part of the body and not the only one that interests me. Below you can see picture of the OR room where the surgeries took place, the hallway and area around the OR and me.
In conclusion through this LINK I have learned that I really really want to be a surgeon, I find it interesting how the body works and ways you can solve the problem a person is having and I want to help others hopefully not just in America one day. I hope that i will have the opportunity to have another internship soon to explore more and create more manful relationships with others in my community.
There was of course slow days, and days where I really wished I were out on a hike instead. On these days I reflected a lot and thought not only about how my experience but about the people they help and the impact they have on them. These days really brought out what drives me to keep pursuing a medical career and keep moving in my life in general. I want to help people.
This thought and watching surgery help me confirm not only that I want to help people but confirmed that I want to be a surgeon. One challenge this brought up for me was that I'm not sure which type of surgeon I want to be. I am still really interested in the brain and spine and how all he nerves work, but learning the anatomy of the hand and arm and observing those surgeries I can see that the brain isn't the only really cool part of the body and not the only one that interests me. Below you can see picture of the OR room where the surgeries took place, the hallway and area around the OR and me.
In conclusion through this LINK I have learned that I really really want to be a surgeon, I find it interesting how the body works and ways you can solve the problem a person is having and I want to help others hopefully not just in America one day. I hope that i will have the opportunity to have another internship soon to explore more and create more manful relationships with others in my community.
My Project: Carpal tunnel, cubital tunnel, and radial tunnel syndrome
My project was on carpal, cubital, and radial tunnel syndrome. My research notes on these are embedded below. What sparked me to want to research these was the scratch collapse test we conducted on a patient. Mary had thought this new patient was showing symptoms of carpal tunnel and wanted to test it so we watched a video and looked at a medical textbook on hands, wrist, syndromes, diseases, and tests and cures for these. So after researching the test for a little bit we conducted it on the patient. This was really cool to see unfold before my eyes. And this I had an idea for my project research the test and the three syndromes, present my research to the clinic, and conduct it on another with one of them. To the right you can watch a video of Mary, my mentor, conducting the scratch collapse test on a patient who has Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ( CTS).
|
|