Job Shadow

When I started this project I had all hopes to job shadow someone from the medical field. What I didn’t realize was my idea of a job shadow was incorrect. Talking to Mr. Johnson I found out what job shadowing really was. Job shadowing is not going and watching someone work, it’s taking the chance to really understand ones job by talking to them and seeing the importance of the facility they work in everyday.

Where do you start? This was the question that I had to figure out. When I had some problems with my ribs I went to Children’s Hospital. Waiting there to get my ex-rays I observed the hospital and I really was interested. I could see myself working in an atmosphere that works with personalized medicine and the well being of children. When I talked with Mr. Johnson about having a day where I would job shadow, he asked me where I would be interested in going. I was set on going to Children’s and being able to meeting people who work in the third best hospital in Wisconsin.

The conversations that normal students have with their teachers are pretty basic but with Mr. Johnson it is so much more. One of our amazing conversations came about when he and I were talking about my personality and how it can help me figure out what I want to do as a career. High school becomes reality and after high school it’s time you decide your future. This is very scary to me but I know I’m not alone. Mr. Johnson started our conversation with the question of “How do you find a job that will make you happy”. A lot of society gets this wrong. It about what’s inside and really discovering what it is that makes you happy. Money and material items will never make you happy. But if you can find something that gives you joy then run with it.

We also looked at the reasons why I love dance. Then we found what characteristics match with the ones needed for the medical field. After taking a look at those Mr. Johnson and I took a Briggs Mires personality test. A Briggs Mires personality test is a quiz that analyses people’s traits to a find job that fits them as a person.  I was shocked when I read my results and it showed a teacher being a good fit. I knew that the tests can vary but my love of helping and caring for people was stronger and I knew I wanted to job shadow someone in Children’s Hospital.

That week I made phone calls, left messages, and sent emails. What I soon understood was that no one was returning my phone calls and messages which was quite frustrating. When I was on the phone I was treated terribly. I was overwhelmed with the fact that school was going to end soon and I needed to get this set up but I couldn’t be helped by anyone because I was a kid and they sure did treat me like one.  Reality settled in that Children’s Hospital was not going to work and I was really bummed.  Perhaps one of the main reasons they didn’t get back to me is that Children’s Hospital is a huge and busy place. One afternoon I came back to academy after making another phone call that was unsuccessful and I sat down next to Kathryn. She started to explain how her mom works at Aurora HealthCare Summit Hospital. Even though I was disappointed about Children’s Hospital not working out I was so thankful for Kathryn who helped me out!

First getting connected with Mrs. Van Hulle from Aurora HealthCare was exciting. Knowing that I might have the experience to job shadow a nurse was very thrilling. Working with Mr. Johnson I learned so much about emailing and the different formats. When I first started communicating with Mrs. Van Hulle I emailed with formal format. I learned that when your communicating with others via email your format changes depending on how they respond. After a few emails back and forth with Mrs. Van Hulle she responded in an informal way that was my signal that I could turn my emails into an informal format. After a while of communication she connected me with a registered nurse who deals with infection control. At first when I heard that she dealt with infection control I was not particularly excited, but then I remembered the real definition of a job shadow.

As soon as I got connected with the nurse from Aurora I was on my way to planning a job shadow. The moment I entered the Aurora HealthCare Summit Hospital I was amazed on how much it didn’t look like a hospital. My mom and I sat down and waited for Rosalyn to arrive. When I saw her approaching I was nervous but the warmth of her welcome and her excitement was reassuring. We sat down in the cafeteria and I interviewed her. For the next twenty-five minutes I learned so much information about a job I had no idea about. We took our seats and she asked me to begin the interview:

Q: How did you get into this field of work?

A: Well, I’ve actually been a registered nurse for twenty three years. I have a degree from Marquette University for bachelor science and nursing. The wonderful thing about nursing is there are so many avenues you can go in to. It is almost limitless the options you can do when you have a nursing degree. You can take care of the patients bed side, you can go into insurance review, you can go into research coordination, you could do what I do, you can look at quality review in the hospital. There is a lot of different things you can do.

At this point in the interview, I realized just what a valuable expert she was. I was really lucky to find someone who knew the profession inside and out. Someone who has had different nursing jobs in the medical field and was able to relate to a lot of them.

Q: What does your basic day look like?

A: Well my job is essentially to prevent infections in the hospital. So when our patients come in we want to keep them safe and we don’t want to cause them any harm. Unfortunately sometimes when they have surgery or they come into the hospital they can get an infection. My job is to try to stop those. On a day to day basic the first thing I do when I came in is I look at the patients that we have in the hospital and I look at the patients in isolation. I look at the rooms to make sure there set up correctly. We also do a lot of work with trying to prevent the infection in the first place; a lot of research goes into our job as well as teaching. That’s the thing about this job everyday is different so one day I could be teaching new employees, or I could be traveling into the city to attend a meeting or a conference. Other days I could be at my computer.

When I first heard she dealt with invention control I had no idea how this interview would go. Was it even going to help me figure out if I wanted to be in the medical field? I had no idea and quite frankly I was nervous. But as we kept talking the information she provided was so helpful.

Q: What do you find most challenging about your job?

A: What I find most challenging about my job is when you have very educated heath care professionals that don’t always want to do the right thing. Sometimes a doctor won’t want to put on an isolation gown when he goes into a room. So then I’ll have to go up to him and say this is why you do it we don’t want our patients getting sick and sometimes they don’t like to be told what to do. So that’s probably the biggest challenge.

When she answered this last question I was surprised that this was the most challenging part of her job. I mean she is the only registered nurse that deals with infection control in that specific hospital. She has to make sure all is good in that huge facility so I was quite shocked with her answer. Having that much responsibility was a new thought for me. I hadn’t really considered that a person could be the sole qualified nurse in her field. I know I would like to have a lot of responsibility, but that much sounded a little scary.

Q: What do you find most rewarding about your job?

A: I find most rewarding when I see the things that I have put in place actually work and our patients don’t have infections. It’s different than hands on nursing. It’s rewarding on a long term sense, more behind the scenes sort of way.

I could easily see myself as a more hands-on person, working with patients one on one. I believe this job would be interesting but during that the interview I saw myself as a physical therapist, a pediatrician, or working with kids. I believe these were possible vocations for me.

Q: What kind people skills do you need in your job?

A: Well you have to be a good communicator because there could one day where I’m talking to patients and patients family explaining to them why there in isolation or what they would need and so that is a little less clinical and less medical. The next day I could be going to a committee meeting filled with surgeons very high level brain surgeons. So you have to have good communication ability and have to be able to tailor that to who you’re speaking to. You have to be organized because of all the data we look at.

This skill of communication is something I think I got a head start on with the program of Academy. Emailing, calling, interviewing, are just a few ways I learned to communicate in a professional way. I know communication is important in the real world so I am glad I was able practice this ability.  

Q: How often do you deal with emergency?

A: That actually believe it or not in my role can happen. Sometimes I’ll get paged on the weekends, for example there a new influenza over in China so I got paged one weekend. We had a patient that came to the emergency room that had just flown in from business from China and was having repertory symptoms and they were really concerned that he might have had this new flu. That’s sort of an emergency because we have to figure out what types of testing to do (to help the patient).

I think emergencies would keep your job exciting and upbeat. So it was interesting to hear that she does deal with emergencies. I am not the person that likes to sit all day and fill out paper work. That is why I want to be in the medical field working with kids. I love caring for people and helping someone get back on their feet. 

The next twenty minutes I was shown around the beautiful facility of Aurora Health Care Summit. I was very happy when I found out that I was going to get a tour. Interviewing and talking to Rosalyn was really helpful but also getting shown around the hospital was a cool learning experience for me. I was imagining coming there for work every day. It was hard to comprehend since I’m only fourteen and I have a lot of school left, but it was worth thinking about. This facility was fairly new so the detail in the architecture to the medical capability was outstanding! I would like to work in a professional hospital where futuristic curriculum is an everyday improvement.

After I thanked Rosalyn for all the help she provided we headed to Lisa’s office where I meet my second registered nurse. As we entered the office I saw her sitting in a gray cubical similar to the ones we use in Academy. She said hello and before Rosalyn said goodbye we got a picture with all three of us. Rosalyn said her goodbyes and Lisa lead us to the emergency room. As we walked she asked me to start the questions I had prepared for her:

Q: How did you get into this field of work?

A: Well when I was still in high school I had a very good friend of mine that was signing up for the nursing program at Carroll College and there was an information day so I went with her because she said “Oh I can bring a friend” and I was already signed up for some medical assistance (program) at a Tec collage so I went there and I was totally blown away by the whole nursing program and I realized, that was something I was going to pursue.

The medical field has a wide verity of jobs it is stressful trying to figure out which path to go on. Hearing from someone that had to make these decisions was really helpful. Knowing that she had a gut feeling about what she wanted to do when she heard it was quite comforting.

Q: What does your basic day look like?

A: Well for me my role as trauma coordinator I do a lot of patient reviews. There are certain patients that fit the criteria to be enrolled in our trauma registry and so I’ll do follow up on them. So it’s basically case reviews and making sure there care has been managed appropriately. I also get involved in other thing with the emergency department. So the day can really vary. There could be meetings, it could be me at my desk, or I could be making rounds on patients. It pretty much varies!

After hearing her answer I noticed that both nurses answered “My day is different everyday”. This is something that intrigues me about the practice of medicine. While I was interviewing her she showed me around the emergency room. For being a new hospital I was expecting it to be busy with people. The hospital was not busy it was quite hushed for an emergency room, but that’s probably a good thing!

Q: What do you find most challenging about your job?

A: Well for my job here at the hospital the goal for us here is to be a trauma center. There are different levels of trauma centers. Madison and Froedtert Hospital are a level one. We want to be a level two which has all the same capabilities as a level one except we aren’t attached to a medical school. That has been the challenge for me, we just open three years ago and being the trauma coordinator… I put the pieces in place to be a verified term center.

Both of the nurses I talked with that day were very important people. Rosalyn was in charge of the infection control of the hospital and Lisa was in charge of the trauma center. When I first came into this experience I expected that a registered nurse was a small job. What I soon found out was that it is anything but a small job!

Q: What do you find most rewarding about your job?

A: Patients that we take care of able to see them getting better. You know if they are really injured being able to follow them along in there hospitalization and see how they progress. From the time they get omitted to the time there going home (is really rewarding).

Comparing the two nurse’s answers I noticed that Lisa was hands on with the patients however Rosalyn was not really a hands-on nurse but more of in the background helping the hospital. I can see myself having a job where a personal relationship is established with my patients.

Q: What kind people skills do you need in your job?

A: Well you have to be able to like people. You have to have a lot of patients for people that are really sick or in a lot of pain. You need good communication skills. You have to have a lot of sympathy as well as empathy. You have to be able to switch gears quickly!

Talking to Lisa is was quite noticeable how much she loved her job. I hope to one day find a job that gives me as much joy as it did to these two nurses.

Q: Is there anything else that you think is important to share to someone who is interested in working in the medical field?

A: I think you have a whole wide area that’s open depending on what you’re interested in. I always knew that the ER and specifically Flight (were my interests). I have worked in a few ER’s but working on that helicopter is my favorite job. So I think that there is such a verity that you can do in the medical field. You have to have motivation because it is such a wide open field to do anything. 

This advice that Lisa gave me was beneficial toward moving forward. When Mr. Johnson and I first sat down and started talking about jobs he told me this “Find a job that you will love, not a job that produces a lot of money but a job that you will make you happy.” There is so much you can do in the medical field but the most important is finding a job you love and nothing else will matter.

Ever since I was ten years old I wanted to be in the medical field. I am not sure what sparked my fuel for this interest but I just knew that it was something I saw myself doing. After job shadowing at Aurora HealthCare I realized why I want to be in the medical field. To come to work every day and know that you have the chance to make a difference in someone’s life is worthwhile. Helping someone get back on their feet, whether it’s from a heart attack or occupational physical therapy, sounds rewarding.  After job shadowing at Aurora Healthcare I’ve come to realize how much of an impact you can make if you find a job that you love.