Internship in every sphere is a crucial process providing a novice worker with the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience. This fact applies in particular to the medical direction, which concerns the health and lives of patients and, subsequently, requires higher responsibility from the clinician’s side. Direct experience in an according field gives confidence turning an intern into a competent professional. I have got a profound understanding of a sphere through consultant practice, at the same time, facing distinct challenges.
Firstly, my internship experience has contributed to the development of my style of counseling. Mainly, applying different theoretical and therapeutic frameworks has resulted in the accumulation of experience and the design of individual approaches. For instance, it concerns coronavirus treatment, given the relevance of an issue and the subsequent proliferation of methods in a respective sphere. One of such valuable frameworks recognized in terms of the internship has been adoptive immunotherapy. It presents a transmission of anti-viral-specific T cells as an efficient approach to COVID-19 treatment, which is also used to treat “cancers, autoimmunity, and viral infections” (Hossein-Khannazer et al., 2020). Such solid theoretical frameworks help to orientate in terms of counseling more confidently, forming a personal style efficiently.
Perception of distinct counseling approaches has also contributed to the style’s development; for example, I consider pretest education with post-test genetic counseling used as a helpful practice. It presents a two-level approach; on the first one, patients are provided with educational materials to get to know the problem themselves; after that, they can have a personal consultation from the side of a clinician (Stoll et al., 2018). Applying this approach also has affected the development of my style.
Notably, working with a patient who is prepared and provided with the necessary information is efficient. Primary education creates a theoretical base on the side of a patient, which results in a more profound connection in terms of counseling. Considering applying such an approach as my strength, at the same time, in conditions of a patient’s unawareness of the theoretical background of an issue, it is more problematic to provide counseling. In other words, it is a challenge for me to prepare a patient, and I believe I should develop this skill particularly.
Moreover, internship practice shows that distinct issues exist in counseling, which clinicians should mainly address carefully. One such issue concerns treating every patient individually, paying attention to their ethnic, racial, cultural, or social background. For example, obesity presents quite a widespread issue in the United States, and, despite the existence of general approaches toward its treatment, a clinician should consider individual characteristics. Some researchers claim that Blacks are inclined to obesity due to genetic and cultural factors (Xiao & Brown, 2021). During my internship, I met a Black woman patient, and it was a challenge to discuss ways to treat a respective issue because, in terms of this distinct culture, obesity is regarded as a norm and beauty. Therefore, the clinician should address the issues of patients individually and avoid bias.
Referring to an issue defined above, the tremendous success in my internship practice is the development of soft skills allowing me to cope with similar problems. Accumulation of an experience in a respective sphere provides an intern with beneficial personal qualities and communication skills. They are one of the most significant elements of setting up contact with patients of different backgrounds. Thus, I consider the training of respective skills as a significant achievement of this internship.
Another essential element of counseling is developing clinical skills, including different types of investigation, allowing one to reveal a diagnosis.
However, the intern can hardly provide such an analysis by themselves due to a lack of experience. Therefore, the Faculty Supervisor has played an important role in this process personally for me. Mainly, he was directing my attention toward symptoms that could help define a proper diagnosis. It was primarily helpful in early-stage cancer recognition cases because sometimes even drastic weight loss could be a signal of a disease’s development. Therefore, the help of a supervisor is necessary because subtle symptoms can remain unnoticeable while being significant for defining a diagnosis.
Busy work shifts and working 40 hours per week have resulted in the feeling of overwhelm with the internship. Additionally, I faced the loss of a close family member, which was a moral stun for me and influenced my overall performance for the next few weeks. Notably, supervision contributes considerably to developing skills and practical training, although its loss was troublesome in the early stages The aforementioned complexities in combination prevented me from completing the credit hours of the internship
In conclusion, internship practice has been helpful for the development of skills necessary for a future career. Moreover, its utility concerns not only training in particular proficiencies like recognition of diagnosis and setting up contact with a patient, but also facing distinct issues and challenges. Overall, it contributes to the accumulation of experience and applying of theoretical understanding to practical tasks, which is extremely important in such a sphere as medicine.
References
Hossein-Khannazer, N., Shokoohian, B., Shpichka, A., Aghdaei, H. A., Timashev, P., & Vosough, M. (2020). Novel therapeutic approaches for treatment of COVID-19.Journal of Molecular Medicine, 98, 789-803.
Stoll, K., Kubendran, S., & Cohen, S. A. (2018, March). The past, present and future of service delivery in genetic counseling: Keeping up in the era of precision medicine.American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C: Seminars in Medical Genetics, 178(1), 24-37.
Xiao, Z., & Brown, R. (2021). Using photovoice to understand perceptions of obesity among African-American women. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 31(6), 751-770.