Gender Communication - Personal Entry

This past summer I applied for a paid internship for Hawaii Pacific Health. I was excited to be exposed to a professional healthcare environment and get paid for it. I distinctly recall prioritizing my department preferences to work for the in-patient pharmacy, the telemetry department, or with administration. After being part of the top 50 out of 200 applicants to be hired, I found out I was going to work in the Facility Management department at Kapi’olani Medical Center at Pali Momi.

“Wait… What department am I in again?” as I tried to verify that I heard correctly. “Facility Management.” In other words, I was put in a department in which I otherwise knew as maintenance… a job that I believe did not suit me well. I wondered how I got placed in such a random department, but I did my best to make the best of it.

The first day on the job came around and I was brought to my department, which turned out to be the hospital’s maintenance shop and security headquarters. I looked around and saw shelves and shelves of all sorts of tools and random parts for any hospital repair. Pretty much all the employees in the department were men in their uniform polos, dark slacks, with walkie-talkies, leather work boots, and their handy-dandy tool carts. The only other female was the secretary of my boss Cory, the Facilities Director. Then, there was me in my business casual outfit, heels, and a padfolio looking as professional as I can be, but I stood out like a sore thumb. The guys pretty told me that they could get a spare polo uniform and I could just wear jeans to work. Being somewhat of a girly-girl that I am I immediately thought why wasn’t a guy assigned to this department? Do they expect me to fix something here?

A couple weeks into the internship program I did a variety of projects. At first I stayed within my comfort zone and helped the secretary process work orders on the computer, file things, answer the phone, and organize the office. The guys in the shop jokingly picked on me wondering if I ever got bored of just sitting there in front of a computer screen. Eventually I decided to show the rest of the department that I am definitely not afraid to try something new or to learn how to fix something. Soon enough I was helping out with building a new locker for the dietician department, staining new wood benches, testing the fire pumps, and learning about circuits. I even helped the security check tags and move bodies from the hospital morgue. I learned the perks of being in Facility Management was being able to have the master key for anywhere in the hospital, knowing how to operate the alarms, knowing the secret hallways and shortcuts, and knowing the security guards got my back. (Haha.) On a more serious note, this department probably gave me an even better experience than I ever thought I would have as compared to the other departments that my new intern friends were working in.

I was still able to take some days off and be able to observe a surgery in the operation room, shadow RNs and pharmacy technicians, and learn about imaging and how to examine an MRI. However, I noticed when I went to these other departments people were always shocked to realize that I am originally work for the facility management department. Of course, society has demonstrated that sort of department is only meant for males. Nevertheless, I learned how to do a lot of practical things and become more “mechanically inclined.” I also learned how to work with the opposite gender and be able to accept their different ways of doing things. I can now impress a family member and a friend or two about things I learned through this internship and show that girls can succeed and benefit from working in that department too, which all in all was a humbling experience that I enjoyed.