From January to July 2022, Isa did an internship in a hospital in Benalmádena, Spain. She is currently studying Nursing (BBL training) and actually knew from the very beginning that she wanted to do something with nursing later on. This is because they have always enjoyed being among people, helping people and worrying people. Her mother has also worked in healthcare for a long time, so she knew well what the work entailed and what you get in return. But during her internship abroad, among other things, she discovered that she does not want to do something as a nurse later on, but in healthcare. Nursing actions do not give her the satisfaction she is looking for.
Isa’s drive
Isa’s drive is that she wants to mean something to others and she does that in her current job. She works at a kind of guest house where young children and youth can stay for a night or a weekend. All kinds of target groups come to this guest house, from people who are completely paralyzed to children with runaway behavior. She found her job there through her father’s cousin and although she had never thought about working with the disabled, she gave it a chance. In the end, this turned out to suit her very well because she really likes to see change in clients, because she likes that there is a lot of variety and because she gets a lot of gratitude in return. Here she can also use some of her qualities, namely her empathy, her listening skills and her high sense of responsibility. That is why she might want to do another course in Social Work after this BBL course, in order to further specialize herself in care for the disabled.
Internship abroad
Partly because of her internship abroad, she found out about this, but that is not the only thing her internship abroad has brought her. She developed herself enormously in Spain and got to know herself better. But that was not without bumps in the road. Unfortunately, after about 3 weeks, she gradually started to suffer from homesickness. In the first weeks she was very busy with all the new impressions and discovering the environment, but the quieter it became, the more she started to miss home. At one point it even got so bad that she was in bed crying almost every night. She had ended up in a negative spiral. Because she missed home so much, she stayed in her room a lot, which made her not happy in Spain and made her miss home even more and so on. Fortunately, she had very nice friends in Spain who tried to comfort her and many people advised her to keep doing things. And she did, which made it just a little bit better.
Coping with homesickness
Isa never expected that she would suffer so much from homesickness. She realized that homesickness is actually only very positive, because it means that you are doing very well in the Netherlands and that you are happy with your life there. However, this thought did not help her when she was alone in another country and could only think about home. So the big question is how do you deal with homesickness? Now that she is back in the Netherlands and looking back at her experience, she has some tips for students who also suffer from homesickness: talk about it with people around you and don’t decide too quickly to go back to the Netherlands, but simply try every day go outside for at least 5 minutes. This way you ensure that you come out of your negative spiral and can still enjoy the experience a bit. She herself sometimes went outside to walk along the beach and enjoy nature. She also thought it was very nice that there were people at JongLeren.es who also suffered from homesickness and that is why she would recommend everyone to call them if you want to talk about it with an expert.
Review
In retrospect, Isa is very happy and proud that she finished it, because she learned a lot from it. For example, when she came home she noticed that she can indicate her limits and needs better and that she has become a lot more independent. However, if she were to go back to the time of departure, she would tell herself to go for 10 weeks instead of 5 months, because 5 months was really too long for her. But she would still recommend anyone who gets the chance to do an internship abroad, regardless of whether you suffer from homesickness or not. Because the only way to find out what it will bring you is to try it.
Pitfall
So Isa always wants to help people and that can sometimes go a bit too far, making it difficult for her to indicate her boundaries in time, both on a personal level and in her work. Also because her limit is not always clear to herself. But during her internship in Spain, she got to know her own boundaries a little better and that means she can now indicate them a lot better on time.
