by Sokrathany Tea

I am currently interning at U.C.S.F. in the Orthopaedic Surgery Department.

My responsibilities are different everyday as it all depends on my supervisor and what special projects she wants me to complete each day. So far, I have scanned, shredded/filed confidential information electronically and created new folders for new patients. I am also responsible for retrieving new scrubs for the doctors and restocking office supplies such as paper, ink, pens, paperclips, and staples etc. I am given very detailed instructions step by step from my supervisor for each task that is given to me and I understand exactly what to do.

The first day on my internship, I was very excited and nervous because I have never worked in this kind of environment before, but despite that feeling, I was ready to learn something new. I arrive every Tuesday and Thursday to my internship at 8:45a.m. When I get there, the first thing I do is greet everyone in the office then I ask my supervisor for my duties for the day. On my first day of my internship I was instructed to file patient charts alphanumerically, create new labels and new folders for new patients. Every project that is assigned to me is very clear and understandable because my supervisor Lori explains every step thoroughly.

The challenges I faced at this job was scanning documents in to the system because I had no clue at all on how to scan anything, but I overcame this challenge by asking my supervisor to show me step by step on how to scan confidential documents on the scanner and by the end of the day I knew exactly how to scan.

My overall impression of my internship is that it is great. I really enjoy working at U.C.S.F. because the people I work with there are all so friendly and helpful. I learned a lot about how the hospital operates such as what certain forms are for and why the doctors are so busy each day. More importantly I gained experience in working in an office setting, and it isn't as hard as I thought it was.

I have benefitted a lot from this internship because it matches perfectly with my short term goal which is to get a job as a Medical Administrative Assistant. I learned the daily duties for the position that I am looking for, and I am definitely looking forward to learning more from my internship.