2024-2025 Internship
About my Internship
The Social Determinants of Health team works within the Indianapolis community to address health inequities and improve health outcomes. ​My main project focuses on diaper need and how it affects the parenting experience. The purpose is to implement better resource integration based on responses and create validated survey questions for diaper need. I’ve spent a lot of my time collecting diaper need surveys from patients at Eskenazi Health Centers Grande and Westside. The work is important because diaper insecurity is a huge problem that doesn’t have a lot research on it. The team is currently working on refining and validating the survey questions and publishing a paper about the findings.
Want to learn more about diaper need as a social issue? Read about it in my issue brief below!
Workplace
​From experience in group projects and leadership roles in student organizations, I am skilled in communicating professionally. Professional communication is essential for me to coordinate schedules and meetings with my supervisor, as well as the rest of the members of the SDOH team.
Communication will be an essential aspect of my career as a healthcare administrator as I will need to communicate with co-workers, anyone who reports to me, and potentially the Board of Directors or Trustees, if I work in a hospital setting.
My time management and organization skills that I've developed through being a leader in various clubs help me keep track of all my commitments and tasks to ensure I complete things in a timely manner. I have a digital calendar and physical calendar, as well as a planner, which helps me ensure I keep track of all my responsibilities.
I have continued developing these skills this year while balancing my heavy course load, internship, and two jobs. Time management will be essential as an administrator because I will have to balance a heavy workload.
I've developed motivation and determination from taking advanced classes throughout my education career. My motivation and determination help me to persevere even when a task is new or hard. I am not quick to give up, which is essential in a new position, especially in my internship in which I am tasked with completing key parts of research studies.
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Motivation is an essential part of developing my career path because it helps me seek out the best opportunities for my future. As an administrator, I will need to continue to be passionate and self-motivated in order to make change in the healthcare world.
​My role within the Social Determinants of Health team involves a lot of behind the scenes work. One of the biggest things I do is collect surveys from patients at the primary care clinics around Indianapolis. Through my work, we've grown the database of diaper need surveys to over 300 total surveys. The team is currently working on publishing a paper using the data collected from these surveys, so my work helps contribute to this paper through the collection of more data. I'm now starting to help validate the questions on the surveys, which will help the team get the paper through each round of publishing. Currently, there are no validated questions regarding diaper need and insecurity. My work validating these questions will not only help the current paper my team is working on, but it will also help future researchers in this field.
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I've also helped translate Medically and Culturally Tailored Foods surveys to input them into the database. Through my work, we now have over 1100 total surveys in the database. The team is beginning work on exporting the data to understand which foods are desired in the food pantry. Additionally, we are working with a volunteer chef to create recipes using the foods that people want. The ultimate goal is to help combat health conditions through healthier food integration. If people suffer from hypertension or diabetes, we can work to provide foods that are better for their diet to help manage these conditions.
Successes
​I have been successful in collecting surveys from patients at both the Westside and Grande campuses on my own. Collecting surveys on my own has taught me how to approach people in a kind and patient manner and step out of my comfort zone. I have learned how to communicate across a language barrier by using non-verbal communication and presenting myself in a welcoming manner. Collecting surveys has made me much more confident.
In my future career as an administrator, I will be able to communicate with a variety of people, from co-workers to subordinates, in a patient, kind, and understanding way to promote the best work environment possible.
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In the fall, I completed all the trainings required of me, such as the CITI training and Eskenazi on-boarding. I was able to get my RedCap access in a timely manner by completing the CITI trainings. Once I got access, I started to input data from diaper-need surveys and food insecurity surveys. Inputting information seems mundane, but it has taught me so much about the diaper need and food insecurity experienced by these patients. As I input the information, I read about the challenges they face in getting basic necessities.
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Learning about the need of these patients through data entry is something that I will carry with me into my future career. It inspires me to pursue a career helping people who experience health inequities. In my career as an administrator, I will always keep in mind the people who are most vulnerable and in need of help, and my ultimate goal is to make a difference in the healthcare system to help them.​
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges I've encountered is communicating with patients who don't speak English. To overcome this obstacle, I've been working on improving my Spanish speaking skills. My supervisor has helped me learn how to bridge the language gap using strategies such as Google Translate and kind, open body language. Once I incorporated these suggestions, this challenge turned into a success story.
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I now know how to navigate a language barrier in the future. Navigating this challenge has helped me improve my communication skills in general as well. I have gotten out of my comfort zone to talk to strangers and approach them about completing surveys.
Another challenge was figuring out which CITI course I was required to do. There were a couple that all sounded the same, so I accidentally did the wrong one. My supervisor was extremely understanding, and she helped me find the correct course to do. Getting these trainings done taught me determination because it took time and patience to find the correct trainings and learn how to use RedCap.
In my future career, I will utilize determination and perseverance to ensure I am able to complete all tasks expected of me. Working with health inequity requires excess determination because making change is difficult and not a linear path by any means.
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