I'm not exactly embarrassed to admit that it's hard for me to advocate for myself. I've always had trouble putting myself out there in new environments without thinking I'm inadequate or out-of-place. Even though High Tech High programs/projects are designed to tackle this issue, it's always been prevalent in my professional and personal life. With internship though, these issues have just been amplified by my inability to actually participate and work at a dental office.
I'm glad to say that I really tried in the past week and a half. Rather than focusing on the aspects of work, I tried to strengthen my relationships with my mentor and my mentor's employees. Sun Smile is a smaller office so it's been helpful to interact with everyone on a more personal, one-to-one level. It might be a bit silly but I've gotten to talk to most of the staff through lunch breaks, casual conversation, and badly-hidden interview questions. They were also very kind to include me into some of the facilities and processes of what they do behind the scenes in their job. I've gotten to see different procedure runthroughs without the patients, and they all are willing to answer my questions. I do need to work on having more questions and asking to observe the work space more without violating HIPAA. This career path, especially as the leading dentist, does have to do with a lot of self-advocacy and a type of confidence in the craft and in your knowledge as a professional. In diagnosing patients, leading the assistants and the company, performing on people's mouths, working with children and elders alike, it's a lot of work that has to do with being on top and out there (where ever there is). As for the advice in "How to be an intern everybody remembers", it's a nice generic list of what to do during internship. It mentions the dress code, behavior, and tips of how to look better in the work space but I did have some drawbacks in my personal experience. I've realized that I don't have a lot of professional clothing that's warm enough for this recent weather or doesn't border POL-level dress code and I can't necessarily ask for work to do (because of legal issues and HIPAA). When the office open up for the day, I usually show up 5-10 minutes early and it's really cold outside. It's not necessarily bad but different employees open the doors at slightly different time so it's a little unpredictable of who I meet in the morning. I recently went to a 'morning huddle' meeting with everyone but I didn't really need my notes because it was just a sheet of what appointments each dentist/hygienist has for the day. The meeting itself was pretty brief with a lot of abbreviated technical terms that I couldn't keep up with. I plan to ask and label what each part means.The only job I really got was to explore the work space and observe what I see; I also have my internship project so I do ask questions to get accurate information among other things to keep myself busy here. My project did come up in the meeting and everyone was curious and, dare I say, excited to see what I've planned. I hope to meet and interact with all of the staff here, it's a great environment and I'm glad I have this opportunity to explore myself and the professional world.
5 Comments
Jeremy
5/22/2019 09:12:49 am
I like how you are conscious of yourself not being out there as much. I do not blame you, it does take a little while to get used to a new environment. How do you think you can advocate yourself moving forward?
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Nia Asbill
5/22/2019 09:44:55 am
It's really neat that your co-workers are excited for your project. Do you think your confidence and advocacy will grow throughout this internship?
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Libby Herzog
5/22/2019 12:33:31 pm
Elizabeth, I'm happy to see you are trying to put yourself out there and advocate for yourself. It's not easy to put yourself out there especially in a new environment. How do you plan to advocate more for yourself throughout the next couple of weeks?
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Mariela A.
5/22/2019 08:01:49 pm
i'm really glad that you are pushing yourself within your internship. It makes me really happy. Do you think that you would that it would be hard or stressful to do your project within the last few weeks of internship? would you finish in time?
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Angeline
5/23/2019 09:25:29 pm
Hey Elizabeth!
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