1. What did the health care professional or organizational staff person do? Be specific. How did they use their time? How did they communicate? How did others, including you, react to them? How did this confirm or differ from your expectations?
2. Isolate one moment that was particularly meaningful and tell it as a very short story with a beginning, a middle and an end?
3. How did what you observe connect to what you have learned in your course work?
4. Can you imagine your future self in this setting? Why or why not?
5. What questions does this experience raise for you?
6. What additional contacts or experiences do you want to seek out?

 

Write on one prompt each day:

1. Describe your first impressions, including the space, the people, their interactions. Also describe your feelings.
2. How did your experience at your site conform to or differ from your expectations? Where do those expectations come from? Previous experiences? The media? How is culture at the site similar to or different from other contexts you have experienced—home, campus, work places? In what ways?
3. Note the social identities (gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, education, etc.) of the people you have met. Are their patterns? Are the identities of those served and those serving similar? Speculate about what accounts for these patterns. Can you imagine your future self in this space? What skills, knowledge and experience would be necessary or useful to be successful in this place? How is success defined here?
4. How is the time structured in this workplace? What does a work day/work week look like? What are the biggest challenges for those who work here? How do they equip themselves to handle them? How is this organization and this profession impacted by larger social forces—politics, technology, economics, etc.?
5. Look back at the reflections from day one and consider whether they have changed and why. What do you know now that you didn’t know then?

 

 

Work on approximately one prompt each week:

1. Write each day following the prompts for the intermediate experience above.
2. Give an example of an incident which reveals power dynamics at your site. Who makes decisions and how are they communicated? What historical, professional, cultural, personal dynamics shape this dynamic.
3. How do institutional structures shape the work and interactions at your site? How is the organization funded and how does this shape lines of accountability?
4. Discuss how emotions are managed and expressed at this site? Do some people take care of themselves and/or others emotionally? In what ways?
5. If you were given the responsibilities of your supervisor what would you change or not change?
6. Which competencies have you developed during this experience? Tell a specific story with a beginning, a middle and an end about how each was developed.

 

Focus inward on how the experience is impacting you. What are you learning about yourself through this experience? Do you have more or less understanding and empathy than you did before? How are your questions changing? In what ways does this experience shifted your sense of self, values, or understanding of community? How is your sense of your professional goals impacted? Does this experience change what you understand healthcare to mean?

How does this experience challenge stereotypes or prejudices you may have held? How does this experience challenge cultural and personal assumptions that you have held? Is your definition of success changing? What boundaries are being pushed? Can you envision your future self in a setting like this?

Focus on a specific incident, conversation, or place to analyze one aspect of an experience in depth. What happened? Be precise in your description and focus on what is important. What did the healthcare professionals do? Be specific. Pay attention to words, non-verbal communication, emotional tone, formal and informal registers of communication, humor. How are power dynamics enacted? What underlying assumptions and processes triggered these particular interactions? How do various healthcare professionals spend their time? Is this what you expected or different than what you expected? Where do your expectations come from? Past experiences? Stories from family and friends? Media? What would you have done if you had been in charge? What did you learn as a result of this experience? What questions were you left with?

 

Step back from your experience and put it in a larger context. Can you identify any underlying or overarching issues? How do larger forces and influences in the community and culture play out here? What political, social, cultural, economic forces are at work? How is what is going on connected to national or global realities? Influenced by historical forces? Can texts and classes offer insight?