My product team and I had an eventful week! Here’s what was going on at Boston Scientific:
- Two corporate-level R&D engineers were visiting
- Speed and volume of our production line output increased
- The supplier investigation continued and is somewhat urgent
We in Process Development collaborate with R&D quite a bit, but we work from different locations. Having the visiting engineers at our location this week boosted everyone’s work pace. Between balancing my responsibilities for the supplier investigation project and the tasks I perform for the team, there were times when I wondered how I would finish it all. I learned about time management and priorities, and that communication helps! When I let my team members know that I was short on time and a bit overwhelmed, they helped by diverting tasks to others as needed and checking in to make sure I didn’t over-stress. Once again, I’m grateful for my teammates, who are friendly, kind, and skilled engineers! It’s easy to look forward to working with them and I will certainly miss them when the internship is over in two weeks.
Another advantage to having R&D visit was that I got to know the corporate-level engineers by observing their leadership styles and asking about their career paths. One really impressive, knowledgeable engineer I talked with has had a fascinating and fun career filled with international travel. Seeing his everyday example of excellence at work inspired me to build a skill set which can make me valuable to any team.
As the supplier investigation of failed raw materials stretches on, I’m learning about healthy work habits and balance. I tend to approach projects with an intense sprint mentality. When the timeline extends, though, maintaining the same level of intensity can be exhausting. Instead, it’s better to proceed at a sustainable pace, which sometimes still feels like a compromise but is overall better for the engineer (me) and the project.
For the weekend adventure, I had my head in the clouds! We traveled to the Monteverde cloud forest area, where we had fantastic hiking and animal sightings. Due to the altitude, there is a nearly constant misty precipitation. We went on a night hike to see animals like this cool frog and went on a fun zipline outing. Every time we went out, there was something to marvel at!
The little room has a sink and a reclining chair, as well as other light equipment needed to perform peritoneal dialysis
In between the weekend events, I talked with Sarah about DialOasis. We’re co-leaders of that project, which has the goal of enabling peritoneal dialysis patients in rural Guanacaste, Costa Rica to complete dialysis therapy at home in order to reduce the load on regional hospitals and improve patient quality of life. The plan to do this is to build a small room like the one pictured in patient homes that has the proper clean environment for dialysis treatment. The project is meaningful because once the solution is implemented, it will allow chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients the freedom to live at home with their families and be somewhat active in their communities. Currently, patients with CKD in that area of the country are unable to perform dialysis at home for sanitation and infrastructure reasons. In order to undergo dialysis four times per day, they must travel to and spend the day at the regional hospital daily, which is a multiple-hour trip for most. As a result, patients are rarely home to interact with their families. If CKD patients could perform dialysis in-home, the burden on public hospitals and other government resources, like ambulances, would decrease. This would not only improve the quality of care for current patients, but could also make available resources to serve unidentified or yet unserved CKD patients in need of dialysis. We will continue working on implementing this throughout the school year, and while we are still in Costa Rica, we’ll get started. Check back next week to see how our initial foray goes!