I think the experience I've gained throughout my internship has made me reconsider the path to that will ultimately lead me to my career. Before starting the internship, I had very minimal knowledge of what it truly meant to be a modern midwife working with a practice of healthcare providers.It made me also realize how many open possibilities there are when it comes to the medical field. Above all I loved seeing this side of the healthcare world, especially how it connected to my original plan to become a labor and delivery nurse. I think that looking ahead, I still want to obtain my BSN through a four year nursing program, however I now know that I want to pursue midwifery after I gain hospital experience as a L&D nurse. I think that having these building blocks of a career will help guide me on my path to a satisfying career in my future. Ever since I was little I've always said I wanted to help people when I grow up, and as I get older I think my calling lies in the care of other women. It was amazing to be surrounded by a practice almost entirely made up of women and to see the strength of all the mothers in and out of the delivery room. I think above all I've learned that there is so my heart that goes into providing care, whether that be comforting a patient, sending out a card to a postpartum mother, or being a person they can talk to.
Academically I've prepared myself in terms of clubs and honors courses and college courses over the summer, but I think most importantly I've prepared myself to be patient, to be calm under pressure, to be kind, and be passionate towards whatever I set my mind to. I can't wait to see what lies ahead as my high school career comes to an end and I being a new journey into the medial field.
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For my internship project which took place over the course of my time at North County Health Services as well as Tri city medical center, I got to carry out a project the midwives and providers had been wanting. I took the opportunity to craft a survey I created which centered around how OB patients use the internet during their pregnancy. Since many mothers have come to the midwives and doctors with concerns they found on unreliable maternity help websites, I will be sharing my data with the group in hope of sorting out which sites are reliable and carry correct information that patients can look to for answers when they're not in their appointment. After I sorted out all the data I will create a short list of useful websites that are given the okay by all the providers that will be used throughout the clinics as a recommended list of websites that have correct information by the end of the week. I loved how the project connected patient interaction with reliable research and data. This project was important to me because I saw the potential it had to be meaningful for the staff even after my internship was over. It was a chance to learn more about healthcare directly from the patients and have a better understanding of what medical providers have to work around with more and more internet users in todays world. The actual process was going into the exam rooms with the midwives and asking a series of questions to each patient, whose answers varied in some areas but were pretty uniform in others. Here are my questions: 1) have you ever used the internet to answer pregnancy questions or find pregnancy related information? 2) How often would you say you've looked up questions? 3) What questions or information did you search for? 4) Did you use Google or a specific website to find this information? 5) On a scale of 1-3, 4-6, or 6+, how many online sources have you looked at? (includes number of google searches) 6) What language did you use? 7) How far along were you in your pregnancy when you looked up these questions? Next, I had to sort out all the data from the 30+ mothers and color code the certain aspects I wanted to focus on. Next was looking into the actual sites the patients were using and figuring out what made a reputable, accurate site. I then worked with the providers to figure out what sites were already being recommended as well as the sites they used themselves. Then the list was refined and revised to create a list that was accessible to the patients as well as educational and beneficial to their pregnancy. My data and final products are here below: Final Products:
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