This week’s blog post is about an experience when I chose to say yes even if I was not quite prepared for the challenge. This occurred when I was working night shift at Seattle Children’s Hospital. During that time, I recently transitioned, having moved from evening shift to working night (graveyard) shift. Night shift is known for being the skeleton crew as we have bare minimum staffing, there isn’t always leadership there to answer questions and in general was already difficult for me to change my body clock to different time. During this time, I had only worked that shift for a few months—there were many things I was still learning and yet to feel comfortable with. Within the next couple months, I became the most “senior” Clinical Laboratory Scientist because many people either left for different shifts or new jobs. To replace those people, many new hires were put onboard as expected, and I was asked by my supervisor to train the new hires. I honestly was not confident, but I also wanted the experience of training other people, because in the process, I get to learn things that I might not know the answer to, and it can also solidify what I already know by being able to explain the process to others.
I definitely did learn a lot from this entire experience (and even currently day still training people and learning lots). I learned how different people have distinctive learning styles that I must adapt to—some being auditory learners, while others are visual learners, and kinesthetic learners where I must show them first. Also, I realized how I don’t often question what I am taught. I accept how things are done but it might not necessarily be the most efficient or effective—this was honestly eye-opening for me, and I’m in the process of being more actively cognizant of what I am doing and why am I doing things a certain way. Lastly, I learned to be more confident in myself and assert myself more. I’ve always struggled with this, so it is an on-going journey, but I believe being confident is a self-fulfilling prophecy to set myself up for success. Saying yes to this challenge is an experience that I will bring with me to working in the field of graphic design and other opportunities in the future as well.
