The intern spent the summer of 2016 interning at the Department of Pediatric Research at Greenville Children's Hospital. Their duties included assisting with clinical trials, shadowing physicians, creating resources for patients, and working to establish and maintain research databases. The intern gained valuable experience in clinical research and how it is incorporated into patient care. They were able to see the impact of research firsthand and feel the internship prepared them well for a future career in healthcare.

1. Interning at the
Greenville Children’s
Hospital Pediatric
Research Dept.

2. My Summer Internship
• I have spent the summer of 2016 interning at the Department
of Pediatric Research at the Greenville Children’s Hospital at
200 Patewood Dr.
• Working 3 to 5 days a week, I was able to acquire a strong
understanding of how clinical medicine exists in our US
healthcare system and how clinical research is incorporated in
various clinics.
• From working with clinical trials spanning multiple practices,
shadowing physicians and nurse practitioners, and creating
resources for patients, I gained a great hands-on experience
on how clinical research and patient care is handled in the
clinical environment.

3. My Internship Site
• My internship was
with the Department
of Pediatric Research
of the Greenville
Children’s Hospital,
located on the
second floor (Suite
200A) of Building A
on the Patewood
Campus.

4. Goals for the Department
• The goals of the Pediatric
Research department
revolve around
overseeing the execution
of clinical research,
namely through:
• Applying for grants and/or
compensated clinical trials
• Identifying patients for
research trials
• Overseeing the execution
of the various research
trials

5. My General Duties
• Throughout the course of my internship, I worked with four
specialty pediatric clinics (Gastroenterology, Endocrinology,
Developmental-Behavioral, and Sleep Medicine) and the
various clinical research trials running in the clinics.
• These trials followed a somewhat universal formula: taking a
drug approved by the FDA for use in adults for a certain
pathology and seeing if the drug could be found to be safe and
effective for use in children
• In addition, I spent a large portion of time working with
Pediatric Endocrinology research and treatment, from creating
a booklet to be given to newly diagnosed IBD patients to
working with Dr. Ransome Eke to determine the effects of
various factors, such as smoke exposure or age, on
Eosinophilic Esophagitis, which is inflammation of the
esophagus due to some type of allergic reaction

6. New Patients to Research
• Every research trial has been
found by an IRB board to be as
safe and ethical as possible;
however, the first step of each
trial is to “consent” the patient
to the trial by giving them
study trial information
• One duty of mine as an intern
was to make sure that this
information was present when
the nurse or doctor was with a
patient. To the right you can
see my simulation of how a
patient would review trial
information (HIPAA prevents
any pictures of actual patients)

7. Randomization
• Randomization is an
important part of
clinical research and is
vital to ensuring that
the results of a study
can be applied
• A portion of my duties
as an intern involved
compiling and
uploading patient
information to patient
databases or to GHS
researchers

8. Study Visits
• Most clinical research trials
that I was involved with took
place over many months or
even years and involved many
clinic visits and lab work to be
performed
• I was able to shadow multiple
research nurses and doctors
to see how patients go
through different phases of
their trials
• In the left, I am simulating the
blood work that would be
drawn for a patient in the later
portion of the treatment stage
for a drug used to treat
ulcerative colitis

9. Labeling Labs
• A part of my internship involved
working very closely with the
research nurses dedicated to
diabetes research
• I spent time in the research lab
labeling containers to indicate the
bloodwork needed to be
performed (usually through
referencing sheets like the TrialNet
protocol pictured on the right)
• I was able to learn a lot through
my experiences both in helping
perform these labworks as well as
learning the need for the work
done through my interactions with
the research nurses

10. Shadowing
• In addition to shadowing care
providers during work with
research trials, I was also able
to shadow physicians and
nurse practitioners in all 4
specialty clinics
• Seeing how these providers
(such as Andrew Smith, NP
pictured to the right) were
able to perform diligent
research while still providing
excellent care to their other
patients was a great
experience for me and
something I hope to draw on
in my future as a medical
professional

11. Working with Record
Databases
• Another large component
of my internship was
working to update and
expand record databases
for patients with certain
chronic diseases, such as
diabetes or Crohn’s
Disease.
• Some databases were GHS-
specific (like REDCap
records for Eosinophilic
Esophagitis records) while
others were region-specific
or even nationwide, such
as T1D diabetes registry or
SEARCH diabetes registry

12. Adding Records to Studies
• For work with these databases, I
worked at my assigned desk for the
summer taking existing patient
medical records and adding them
into the registries
• The records were also de-identified
in this process, meaning that I
assigned a unique identifier to this
data so that a researcher viewing
the record later would not be able to
personally identify a patient based
off of the information present
(which would be a HIPAA violation)
• Naturally, ensuring that no HIPAA
violations were present was an
important component of my work with
these records

13. Following Up with Patients
• Sometimes, it was necessary to call
or email parents of patients in
research trials to
• Make sure their medications had not
changed
• Determining certain information (such as
medical history) that had previously been
left out of their medical record
• Seeing if any symptoms had arisen since
their last visit to the clinic
• Being able to interact with patients
and their parents was a facet of my
internship that I enjoyed quite a bit
• Being that a strong pull of working in
medicine to me is the ability to form
relationships with patients, being able to
remember and become familiar with
patients that I encountered during my
summer internship was greatly rewarding
to me

14. Additional Projects
• In addition to my work in creating
and updating a REDCap medical
record database, I also worked
with the Pediatric GI department
to create an informational booklet
for patients newly diagnosed with
IBD (aka Crohn’s Disease)
• This booklet is designed to help
these patients better understand
their diagnosis, and to help them
manage their disease more easily
• This was yet another rewarding
experience for me; knowing that a
booklet I helped create as an
undergraduate student is going to be
used in the GI clinic was extremely
gratifying

15. My Overall Internship
Experience
• Overall, I do not think that I could have had a better internship
experience than the one that I had at the Greenville Children’s
Hospital this summer.
• Working with such knowledgeable researchers and providers (who
were always willing to answer my extensive questions about the
research being performed) was truly an amazing experience and has
motivated me to incorporate the actions and behaviors I witnessed
this summer into my future as a healthcare professional.
• Getting to work for a summer also allowed me to see patients and
research trials over a long period of time, and allowed me to actually
see patients lives improve even in the short time I was present,
which was a very fulfilling experience.
• I hope to use all of the knowledge and experiences that I have
gleaned from my summer internship to better myself in my future
goals of being a health professional.