INTERNSHIP
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Job Description
I interned at an extremely small start-up company called SwerveLogic. I was tasked with researching patient tracking data and technology for individuals involved in humanitarian crises. The women who owns the company, Stephanie Turner, primarily works out of her home, so this is where I performed the majority of my tasks.
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Time Log
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Weekly Logs
1) 02/08/18:
Throughout this first week, my partner and I became acquainted with the basics of patient data tracking after humanitarian disasters. Prior to starting this internship, I had little knowledge as to how patient data was logged, tracked, and shared between patient facilities, but I’m slowly learning more about these topics. Additionally, we acquired an understanding of the basic questions that need to be asked to all patients upon being booked for transfers: Where and who are they? What are the immediate and long-term risks of their injury/illness? How urgent is their situation? How much (blood, medicine, etc.) is needed? What resources are locally available and what supplies are needed? On top of this, we created a basic graphic showing the general flow of patients after disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
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2) 02/15/18:
During the second week of this internship, my partner and I did a lot of research revolving around the specifics of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and how patients there were managed. We learned a good deal about the infrastructure loss there and how this loss affected the tracking and treatment of patients. We also performed extensive research on the initial methods of tracking patients in the aftermath of the disaster, such as using SIM cards to track the whereabouts of certain individuals.
3) 02/22/18:
At this point, my partner and I continued research on the specifics of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. We looked into two specific facilities affected by the disaster, the Maternité Solidarité hospital and The Hôpital Albert Schweitzer. We learned that both of these facilities suffered significant structural damage during the earthquake, and that this resulted in added difficulties in patient treatment. We found out that the Maternité Solidarité hospital had to move all of its patients outside, so we decided to look further into how certain challenges like this added to the difficulty of managing the crisis.
4) 03/01/18:
For the last week of this internship, my partner and I worked on summarizing our findings and compiling them into reports for our supervisor. This involved cutting down our findings to only include the most important information and formatting everything in a way that was aesthetically pleasing. This took more time than we would have liked, but making sure our findings were presented in a concise and informative manner was a goal we promised ourselves we would reach. In the end, we compiled all of our research into three documents, and our supervisor approved.
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Closing Report
Throughout this internship, I employed several key skills which were used every day on the job. Firstly, the majority of my tasks were researched based, so I had to utilize my solid researching ability in order to find the ultra-specific information I was tasked with looking for. Other important skills that were used in every facet of this job were communication and organizational skills. To be successful at my position, I had to demonstrate my prowess as a writer to compile my findings in a way that was easy to read and present. On top of this, I had to summarize broad and abstract systems in an effective manner. This also meant I had to be organized, as my findings came from a variety of different sources and I had to keep track of them all. Despite the fact that I was primarily doing research, completing my tasks effectively and on time required me to employ all these skills while I worked.
The daily duties for this position were simple, yet demanding. I was usually tasked with researching and learning about humanitarian crises and how people in need of medical care after disasters had their information moved between certain facilities. After I had compiled a certain amount of data or research, I was often asked to organize my findings into documents to be sent to my supervisor for review. Additionally, I was also expected to be in constant communication with my supervisor to ensure that we were both on the same page and that they were getting the information they needed.
I gained a great deal of awareness about the resulting obstacles of humanitarian disasters from this internship. Prior to this engagement, I never understood how patients were treated or tracked during humanitarian disasters, but through my research, I was able to obtain basic answers to these questions. I also had no prior knowledge of how tracking technology functioned, but a hefty amount of research into this topic solidified my understanding. As I went more in depth into my research, I also learned about more complex situations, like how patients are tracked when infrastructure in a certain area becomes damaged. I found these topics to be very stimulating due to the fact that I always see crises like the one I researched on the news, and I never knew how they were managed.
I encountered two main obstacles while completing this internship. Firstly, meeting deadlines for the internship while simultaneously having to manage my homework was a tall task. I often found myself having to cram time for this engagement into Mondays and Wednesdays to accommodate for my schoolwork. However, the largest obstacle that I faced during the internship was finding ultra-specific information that I was tasked with finding. Although I am a good researcher, a lot of the information I was asked to find was not a click away on google, but instead in reports I had to request access to and PDFs buried in published papers. Finding the evidence to reinforce my findings took the most time out of any of my tasks, and it was definitely frustrating at times.
Initially, I thought that this internship would involve a lot of hands-on work, but I was wrong. Like I mentioned previously, I was primarily tasked with doing research for the company, and although I enjoyed doing this, I wish I could have done something that extended beyond my computer screen. I also thought that I would be more involved in the way the company functions. In the end, I mainly summarized and regurgitated information from reports and performed other menial research tasks for the company.
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