Industry Investigation Prompts
Joslin Diabetes Center |
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Prompt #1: A CAPStone Internship is more than just doing some job for the 2nd semester of your senior year, it is an investigation of the industry of which you are a part. So to get the ball rolling for you, write about what your initial/preconceived idea of the industry is/was before you started working for your particular company/organization. If you have a point of delineation for where this perspective started, include it. (For example, maybe your initial understanding of this industry stems back to the fact that your aunt or grandfather was involved in it and he spoke about it at the dinner table or at family gatherings.)
Growing up with type 1 diabetes allowed much time to be spent at Joslin Diabetes Center. As a young child, I spent most of my time in the "play room" while my parent's went into my appointment. I would play games with Micaela, the child life specialist, while she would ask me questions to dig deeper into my emotions towards my juvenile diabetes. She was an important support in the process of keeping calm while getting blood drawn, and helped me learn more about my medical supplies. Starting this internship as a child life specialist with Micaela, I imagined it to be similar to the kind of support and help that I grew up depending on.
Prompt #2: What is the goal of your industry? Customer satisfaction? Expansion? Profit? Research? How do you know? Is it static, or does it change?
The goal of the Child Life industry is support and the well being of children in the medical field. Their job is to ask questions, answer questions, and be a support system for the children who need it. The overall goal does not change, but it does change for each specific situation. For instance, a young boy was due for labs in the clinic. He was extremely afraid of needles and blood draws, due to his scarring experience when he was first diagnosed. Screaming and kicking, the child life specialist's offered games, stickers, prizes, and ultimately a hand to hold in order to calm him down and adjust to the new life of needles, which ultimately makes all of the difference.
Prompt #3: What does it mean to be an employee of a company/group/industry? Declare your definition here. Then, reflect on it.
To be an employee of a company/industry means to be involved and knowledgable. For instance, Micaela, the head child life specialist at Joslin, knows every single patients name, age, siblings names, parents names, and specific details about their lives. Micaela is so involved and cares so much about her work and patients which leaves her with the ease of knowledge in her work. Its truly inspiring.
Prompt #4: Answer the following question in relation to your industry: Is there an endpoint to learning at your job? Do you want there to be? Whatever you choose, explain your answer.
There is no endpoint to learning at my job, and I don't think anyone wishes there to be. Life would be boring if you didn't learn anything new.
Micaela, the child life specialist at Joslin, has been working there since I was a little kid. Thats a long time, and she is still learning something new almost every day, whether its learning more about a child, about diabetes, or meeting new children and ways to support them. If it weren't for that, no one would be happy.
Micaela, the child life specialist at Joslin, has been working there since I was a little kid. Thats a long time, and she is still learning something new almost every day, whether its learning more about a child, about diabetes, or meeting new children and ways to support them. If it weren't for that, no one would be happy.
Prompt #5: How would the world be different if your industry didn’t exist, or if it were to somehow disappear? Speculate and ponder.
The world would be a scarier place without child life specialists. Medical care begins when children are born, and most of the time never stops. Without the care, attention, support and positivity of child life specialists in a time of fear and struggle, any medical attention would have a negative memory connected to it and cause pushback and refusal to have vaccines, chronic disease care, or emergency care.
For a type 1 diabetic, life would be absolutely terrifying if it had to be lived without reassurance.
For a type 1 diabetic, life would be absolutely terrifying if it had to be lived without reassurance.
Dr. Labow |
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Prompt #1: What is the goal of your industry? Customer satisfaction? Expansion? Profit? Research? How do you know? Is it static, or does it change?
The goal of my industry is patient satisfaction, research, and health. Dr. Labow does a fair share of his own research, and discovering ways to allow the patient for example, to choose the size of their breasts after a breast reduction while also giving the best chance of successful breast feeding in the future. This is all done while making sure the patient is absolutely healthy after surgery.
Prompt #2: All of you should have time to have lunch at your jobs--it’s part of your worker rights. What’s lunchtime like? Do you eat with employees, or do you eat on your own? Do employees eat together regularly, or must they eat what they can when they can? How does the way lunchtime is treated at your job reflect the job itself?
When in surgery, not everyone in the operating room eats together. Some stay back to stay with the patient for the short break, and the rest usually split up. Most of the time, the surgeons eat together while the PA's eat together, and same with the nurses. When in clinic, the PA's and the surgeons eat lunch together, as they know each other the most because of working together on cases. The nurses usually have lunch shifts because some are always needed in clinic.
Prompt #3: Does your industry take pains to take care of the little things? How/why not?
The surgical industry absolutely takes pains to take care of the little things. The point of plastic surgery is to make people feel more confident and better about themselves. So, if there is one little stitch out of place or spread too far apart, they redo every single one in order to make it perfect. Even for patient reports, the PA's will spend time making sure every word and term in the report is absolutely accurate. This is necessary in the medical field.
Prompt #4: Who were you the night before you started your internship? Who are you as you walk off site at the end of your last day? What’s changed? If you could go back in time to talk to the you you were the night before it all started, what would you say to your past self? Would your past self be impressed with / proud of your future self? How come/why not?
Before I started my internship, I was clueless of what was to come. I was excited, but nervous about what I was and wasn't going to get to experience. Walking out of my internship on my last day, I was extremely grateful and sad to leave. I got to experience more than I imagined that I would possibly get to see, and I learned even more. I made relationships, impressions, and ultimately found my passion. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to enjoy each and every second of interning for Dr. Labow, as I would see it as the greatest time of my life. My past self would be impressed with my future self because I got this experience by hard work and determination, which gave me everything I could have ever expected.