HEALTH 4200 - INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE: KELSEY SHERARD

                                                                                 Intern's Final Evaluation/Reflection

Review your goals and objectives for your internship and assess your internship site as it provided a setting for achieving those goals and objectives.

1. Health Assessment Goal

   1. Throughout my time at the Sullivan Center I plan to master the techniques of taking patient’s vital signs and health history.

      1. One of my largest contributions at the Sullivan Center was to take care of patient intake, which includes taking vitals and patient health history. At the beginning of my internship Mrs. Garcia oversaw our patient interactions and charting of reasons for visit. She was always nearby to assist the interns with any computer issues or any charting questions dealing with unique reasons for visit.

   2. Throughout my internship I will perform the correct cleaning and sanitation techniques for patient rooms and equipment.

      1. Learning the correct sanitary measures was very important throughout my internship, especially when we had a lot of patients throughout the day. Mrs. Garcia taught me which materials to use on which surface and how to clean the utensils. She gave me step-by-step instructions that were very easy for me to follow when I performed these measures throughout the semester.

2. Health Planning Goal

   1. By the end of my fieldwork experience, I will be able to conduct a program plan for wellness counseling with a patient.

      1. Throughout my internship I had many opportunities to observe Ms. Caitlin Moore with her FLT patients. I would take the vitals, history, and reason for visit and then send the patient into the counseling room. Ms. Moore would have on average of around three FirstLine Therapy patients a week. She encouraged me to sit in and make comments during the consultations as I saw fit.  

3. Intervention Evaluation Goal

   1. By the end of my internship experience, I will be able to describe how the Sullivan Center evaluates the effectiveness of their community programs such as the Wise Woman Program, C U Well, and C U 4 Health

      1. I unfortunately did not work closely with these certain programs, as I was more hands-on with the Firstline Therapy program.  Another intern worked closer with these programs.

4. Explain and show how you achieved the goals you set.

   1. Health Assessment Goal

      1. Throughout my time at the Sullivan Center I plan to master the techniques of taking patient’s vital signs and health history.

         1. After the first week of my internship I was trusted to accomplish this job on my own and learn from experience. Once I grew accustomed to my duties I was also responsible for ordering, conducting, and charting in-house tests such as urinary analysis, hemoglobin, and pregnancy tests.

      2. Throughout my internship I will perform the correct cleaning and sanitation techniques for patient rooms and equipment.

         1. I quickly learned what materials to use throughout each room and how to do so in a timely manner. It was recommended that as soon as one patient left the room to checkout I would immediately enter and disinfect and tidy up the room.  That way the room was ready to go for the next patient no matter what our schedule was that day. I always used gloves to protect my hands from the strong disinfectant wipes and so I would not contaminate nor become infected if the patient was in for a contagious illness. Mrs. Garcia also taught me how to clean utensils for various procedures in the procedure room and then how to autoclave these utensils. I also emptied the biohazard sharps containers in the rooms when they were full and disposed of them properly.

   2. Health Planning Goal

      1. By the end of my fieldwork experience, I will be able to conduct a program plan for wellness counseling with a patient.

         1. I had many opportunities to observe consultations and provide my advice on individual patient’s diets and probiotics that we offered at the Center. I also provided encouragement for the patients that might have grown discouraged. I never had the opportunity to counsel a patient by myself but saw myself as an aid to the consultations. I also explained the BIA test to patients and the reasons for this test, as it would be the best comparison to judge patient growth. When patients were in the BIA room I would have them remove everything on their right had and foot and place the gel pads on the assigned places.

   3. Intervention Evaluation Goal

      1. By the end of my internship experience, I will be able to describe how the Sullivan Center evaluates the effectiveness of their community programs such as the Wise Woman Program, C U Well, and C U 4 Health.

         1. I unfortunately never worked with these three programs in in depth, but worked more with the Sullivan Center’s FirstLine Therapy program. I did create a marketing program that would help increase attendance of this program that would begin in the spring 2016 semester. This marketing plan included various marketing outlets; both print and non-print that would help market the program. These outlets included the student newspaper, radio stations, and social media events. Three events were created to help promote patient interaction with health providers that would serve as a community source and help encourage the patients to sign up for consultations. These three social media events were correlated to the beginning of the year, Valentine’s Day, and just before spring break.

 

3.         Choose one project/assignment and describe it as follows:

            a.         How well do you think you accomplished the project or dealt with the experience(s)?

                                    I believe that I thoroughly completed the FirstLine Therapy brochure that was my assigned project in the Center. I feel that I did a                                       worthy job for the fact that I left time for improvements. After designing the brochure to the best of my design ability and researching                                     about the program I sent the brochure to be critiqued by my preceptor Ms. Moore. I completed the brochure in ample time for several                                     drafts and to make sure that I completed the brochure to the Sullivan Center’s standards. I was very surprised when Ms. Moore had                                       fewer corrections than I expected which proved to me that I not only completed the project but fulfilled the expectations.

 

                b.         What skills did you use? (e.g. writing, speaking, organizing, interpersonal, counseling, management, research, etc.)

                                    While making my brochure I utilized many of my skills. I utilized my researching skills as I read through many articles and studies to                               first gain knowledge of what the FLT program consists of in order to explain the program to patients. Throughout my observations of Ms.                               Moore with her patients I had a chance to counsel several patients when they were depressed if they had not received the results that                                   they had hoped for throughout the course of the program. I then organized my thoughts from research and patient experience to create                                the brochure. I of course utilized my writing skills while trying to figure out how to explain to the patients what was being offered to them                               so they could make an educated decision as to if they were interested or not.

 

                 c.         Point out your strengths and weaknesses. What would you do differently?

                                   I really wish that I could have spent more time with patients. Some patients you could tell were there to be counseled as well as their                              physical need that they were seeing the provider for, I believe that I was so focused on having an efficient intake and while I was always                                polite I wish I could have paid more attention to them when they needed someone to listen to their symptoms and what they have going                                on with their lives.

 

4.         Assess your contribution to the internship site.

              I am proud to say that I believe that I actually made a difference at my internship site. Everyday my goal was to lessen the load of the staff at the Sullivan Center. I did not just assist the staff that worked closest with me but I found myself helping all the staff anyway I could which led me to become introduced to many different aspects of a health clinic. Everyday I dealt with patient intake and ran any tests needed or gathered blood work so that way the provider could focus on diagnosing and treating the patient.

 

5.         Has your experience changed or reinforced your career goals.  Changed or reinforced your educational goals?  Could you see yourself as a professional in this field?

              Throughout my time at the Sullivan Center, I now have a clearer understanding of my aspirations. I applied for this internship knowing that I was very interested in the nursing field- but I had no idea how much this internship would affect my career goals. I never knew just how versatile a registered nurse is and I have continued to be impressed with just how much they can do with treating patients especially in various settings like off-site clinics. My nursing goal was not just reinforced but I have become interested in furthering my education to not only obtain a four year degree in nursing but continuing to nurse practitioner school. I am very happy to say that I can see myself not only taking care of patients with labs but also diagnosing them as a registered Nurse Practitioner.

 

6.         Relate your internship experience to your academic work on campus. List at least 5 specific courses (by title, not number) either in your major or outside your major that were useful at this site.

               There were several courses throughout my undergraduate degree that assisted me throughout my internship. My Determinants of Health Behavior class taught me about the cycle of how intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental factors affect the health of the patient. This was very important with patients that are knowingly making unhealthy decisions. Another important class was the Overview of Health Care Systems, which was very similar to the Wise Woman program that the Sullivan Center offers as family factors and the level of SES affects the health of the patient and their access to healthcare. Another class that helped with discussion at the Sullivan Center was my Healthcare Operation Management Research course that introduced the ideas of emerging technology in healthcare such as Tele-health. This was important when nursing students came to the Sullivan Center to learn how the Sullivan Center could utilize a mobile robot when treating patients. A Human Anatomy and Physiology class that I took my sophomore helped with FLT patients and advising certain Metagnics probiotics.

 

7.         Were there instances at your site where the health literacy training were utilized? Explain.
             I utilized my health literacy training every day, especially with asking patients about symptoms to chart them before I sent them to the patient. I learned a lot of medical terminology so that I could explain it to the patient to gain an accurate understanding of their symptoms so the doctor would know how to treat them. I not only used my training interpersonally with patients but also through my FLT brochure and flyers, I was sure that I not only explained what the program entailed but that the materials also educated the patient so they could fully understand what they were being offered.