BLOG POST - First week
During my senior year externship, I will be interning at Select Physical Therapy. I will be doing tasks to assist the aids: such as wiping down tables; doing laundry; and helping patients with the equipment for their exercises. I will also observe my mentor, Emily Katz, as she works with her patients to help create their plan of care and stretch/ massage. Lastly, I will help Phoebe and Ravenn at the front desk with various projects they give me. I'm really excited about this internship because I feel like it will help prepare me for the career I want to pursue in the future. Also so far it seems as if the people are very kind and welcoming, which I was a little scared about. Something I am nervous about is that sometimes I'm not aware what I should be doing in that exact moment, and all of the people are busy doing their jobs, so sometimes I just stand there and look stupid.
I have acquired many new skills at Select this past week. I learned about how copy, scan, and fax documents, as well as learned about many body parts humans have. I'm really grateful for Emily, because she always tries her best to make my experience shadowing her as informational as possible. She always explains what body part she's targeting, how and why she's targeting it, and explains how the exercises the patient performs helps it. This is really interesting to me, because this is what I plan to study in school.
I have acquired many new skills at Select this past week. I learned about how copy, scan, and fax documents, as well as learned about many body parts humans have. I'm really grateful for Emily, because she always tries her best to make my experience shadowing her as informational as possible. She always explains what body part she's targeting, how and why she's targeting it, and explains how the exercises the patient performs helps it. This is really interesting to me, because this is what I plan to study in school.
Blog Post 2- Mentor interview
Blog post 3- growth
After a few weeks, the main challenge I have faced at Select Physical Therapy were at the beginning of the second week. Like I mentioned in my first blog post, one of the things about my mentorship is that all of the workers are really busy, and often times don't have the time to tell me what to do. So there was one instance where I was asked to help with filing at the front desk, and I did it all day, but my mentor Emily told me she would prefer if I didn't spend all day at the front desk. She told me that she understands the front desk needs a lot of help, but to make the most of this internship, she wants me to split the time evenly between the front desk and shadowing her. This makes sure that I'm learning during my internship and not just doing manual labor all day. I'm really grateful she prioritizes my learning, because at a lot of internships I've heard about, the mentor just makes you do office work or clean up the business.
Some of the steps I have taken to fix this challenge during externship is speaking up to my mentors and coworkers about the challenge I'm facing, and not be shy to ask for help or for a task. But my coworker Ravenn was really my saving grace, because she noticed I was struggling, and stepped up to make me a really elaborate list of tasks to do, and give me a schedule of how I should split up my time so I balance helping the aides, the front desk, and observe.
Some of the steps I have taken to fix this challenge during externship is speaking up to my mentors and coworkers about the challenge I'm facing, and not be shy to ask for help or for a task. But my coworker Ravenn was really my saving grace, because she noticed I was struggling, and stepped up to make me a really elaborate list of tasks to do, and give me a schedule of how I should split up my time so I balance helping the aides, the front desk, and observe.
Blog post 4- My work
Blog post 5 - High school skills in the real world
A skill that High Tech High has helped me with is my people skills. In many projects in high school, we have to talk to adults, whether it be during the project or for exhibition. As a young adult, it's important to understand that you have to talk differently to adults than you do to people your own age. In a physical therapy office, many of the patients are older people who have just had a surgery or a severe injury, so they often like to talk and make conversation with the workers, so this skill has came in handy the past few weeks. The patients love to talk to me and ask about externship and always tell me how wonderful it is that I'm doing this, because it will be helpful later in life.
Being completely honest, I don't see many similarities in internship to high school. If I had to choose one, I would say that a similarity is that teamwork is very important. At Select, the team of aides, therapists and secretaries all work together to make the business run smoothly. They all have their own role and are equally as important to the wellbeing of the business. This is the same as projects in school, because everyone has to put in work for a project to be successful.
One thing that I noticed immediately about my internship that was different than high school was that the adults never take breaks. The first week that I was there, I never saw one person take a lunch break, even look at their phones, or sit down to talk to each other. They were constantly moving and taking care of patients. One of the patients commented on this, and Emily replied "I don't take a lunch break because thats at least two more patients I can fit into my schedule." This struck me because I thought of the time we spend at school, where we have our passing period breaks, lunch, and still are often unproductive during class. We have days where we don't feel like doing anything, so for project work time we just sit there. I realized that that type of behavior is not going to fly in the real world, so its better to learn that skill sooner than later.
Being completely honest, I don't see many similarities in internship to high school. If I had to choose one, I would say that a similarity is that teamwork is very important. At Select, the team of aides, therapists and secretaries all work together to make the business run smoothly. They all have their own role and are equally as important to the wellbeing of the business. This is the same as projects in school, because everyone has to put in work for a project to be successful.
One thing that I noticed immediately about my internship that was different than high school was that the adults never take breaks. The first week that I was there, I never saw one person take a lunch break, even look at their phones, or sit down to talk to each other. They were constantly moving and taking care of patients. One of the patients commented on this, and Emily replied "I don't take a lunch break because thats at least two more patients I can fit into my schedule." This struck me because I thought of the time we spend at school, where we have our passing period breaks, lunch, and still are often unproductive during class. We have days where we don't feel like doing anything, so for project work time we just sit there. I realized that that type of behavior is not going to fly in the real world, so its better to learn that skill sooner than later.
Blog post 6 - AHA moment
For my aha moment, I decided to reenact a moment I had earlier this week, when I woke up with neck pain. As soon as I thought of my pain and why it might have been caused, I thought about what my mentor Emily had said about pillows and sleeping on your side, and I realized I usually don't sleep on my side. This is probably why I woke up with neck pain. Making this realization showed me that things you learn in physical therapy can be applied to everyday life, even if you're not a physical therapy patient or injured.
Blog post 7-Mind Map
Blog post 8- Mind map Narration
Blog post 9- Gratitude
I'm grateful for a patient who took the time to make me really comfortable here. While I was observing, she tapped my shoulder, and pulled me aside. She asked if I had ever heard of body language, and when I replied no she told me with the body language I used when I observed Emily, it told others around me that I was meek and timid. She showed me how to use body language to give off the appearance of confidence and certainty, something that I've been trying to work on. Since this experience, I've been trying to think about it and change my body language. I'm especially thankful for this experience because I know the people at Select want me to be my best self, as do I. Constant improvement is something I strive for.
Another experience I am grateful for is when Justin and Sergio, the aids, helped me in the beginning of internship to explain how to do all of my tasks. This was really helpful, because I know they were super busy and understaffed, but still made time to help me. They were really welcoming since the beginning of internship, and made my transition very easy.
Lastly, I would like to thank my mentor for all of her help during internship. Particularly, I'm really grateful for her efforts to making my time with her so educational. I learned so much under her, and it really inspired me and affirmed my beliefs that I wanted to go into medicine. Emily is so hardworking and genuinely cares about her patients, which is something I aspire to be in the future.
Another experience I am grateful for is when Justin and Sergio, the aids, helped me in the beginning of internship to explain how to do all of my tasks. This was really helpful, because I know they were super busy and understaffed, but still made time to help me. They were really welcoming since the beginning of internship, and made my transition very easy.
Lastly, I would like to thank my mentor for all of her help during internship. Particularly, I'm really grateful for her efforts to making my time with her so educational. I learned so much under her, and it really inspired me and affirmed my beliefs that I wanted to go into medicine. Emily is so hardworking and genuinely cares about her patients, which is something I aspire to be in the future.