The Life of a Bentley Intern

My alarm clock goes of at 6:40 am (it is set 12 minutes fast to trick my mind so it actually says 6:28 am), and I hit the snooze button once to wake up at 6:49 am. I get up and get ready for work. For me, work here at Bentley doesn't start until 9 am, so every morning I find myself having 20 minutes extra to get ready. During the extra time I give myself, I lounge around, eat breakfast and watch the news. Because of my fear of being late, I leave for work 50 minutes before it starts, even though it only takes about 25-30 minutes for me to get here; so I always end up being early.

Bentley has given me opportunity to work in between my very busy school schedule for the past two years. Recently I'm so grateful to have received the chance to work from home two days a week after school (I will be starting school June 30th as a requirement of the program I'm in).

As of right now, after work, I come home, eat dinner, and then run three miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-8 pm with six of my close friends from high school. On Wednesdays, those same friends and I get together for a bible study from 7-9 pm.

My life will be changing on June 30th when I start school again. I have been attending Lancaster General College of Nursing and Health Sciences for Diagnostic Medical Sonography, (ultrasound) since the fall of 2006 after my high school graduation. I will be graduating from college May 8th 2009!

My schedule will consist of waking up at 4 am Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to be at the college at 6 am for lab where we practice scanning (performing an ultrasound) each other (there are only 15 students in my class, 7 of them have clinical with me, at Lancaster General Hospital).

I will leave my house at 5:05 am to be at the college parking lot at 5:30 am to then be shuttled to the college (there is no parking in the city). I'll get there early because being late is a big fear of mine, and also because the ultrasound machines take about 10 minutes to set up, and we need to be scanning by 6 am.

After lab, at or around 8 am, we'll all depart for our clinical destinations (we rotate through all 6 branches of Lancaster General Hospital because we all can't be at the hospital at once). Clinical will be from around 8am to 3:30 pm, in which we will perform ultrasounds on real patients with the supervision of a sonographer (an ultrasound technician).

This semester will consist of competency tests in which we'll be graded on a specific case. We must receive an 84% or better in order to pass each test (if we fail two tests and each of their single retakes, we are let go from the program), and we must have a 74% or better to stay in the program. These achievements are very doable since we are trained very well.

In between clinical days, I will have lecture on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 am-12 pm. This semester, lecture will consist of studying pathology in great detail. Then from 1 pm-6 pm, I will be working at Bentley from home!

Being an ultrasound student is very stressful. This semester, I will have only 10 lecture classes, and 6 tests, two of which are on the same day (each test is about 2 hours long-and mostly written)! I have gained so much knowledge these past three years (I only had one semester of clinical so far). The stress from school and life has put me through a lot. I ended up with shingles in April from stress itself.....at 20 years old! The body is an amazing thing. I did not believe a horrible rash on my back could have been caused by just an intense inflammation of nerves, until I saw it for myself! Now, when I get stressed, my body reacts by sending shooting pains up my back every time I take a breath in. In a way, it's almost a good thing; I know now when to back away from everything and just relax.

One can say I'm definitely not the average college student. There is an incredible amount of responsibility put on my shoulders, and my fellow classmates. In my opinion, just waking up at 4 am is a lot of responsibility!

Ultrasound has taught me to have a lot of patience, understanding, and kindness toward others.

I am so happy I have the opportunity to be part of Bentley's Web Team and Lancaster General Hospital's team right now!

 

Web Intern,
Lauren