Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Beacon Hill at Eastgate

Kaitlin
Major: Health Professions Worked with the program manager of Assisted Living and Dementia Unit in managing the staff, and helping create a thriving environment for each resident by making sure their care plans were up to date and were receiving satisfactory care from all staff.

Nursing Manager Intern

Austin
Major: Health Professions I sat in on bed meetings, which was an overview of how full the hospital was for the day with beds, how many nurses they had on as well as PCA's and trying to make sure that every floor was staffed correctly and just an overview of what the day may look like with surgeries, patients getting discharged, etc.

Health & Wellness

Maria
Major: Health Professions Some of the tasks I completed while at my internship include, but are not exclusive to-entering class evaluations into the computer, writing features for weekly emails, registering people for classes, distributing flyers throughout the hospital, and attending evening events.

Patient Access

Dreena
Major: Health Professions My summer project was to rewrite the registration policy for the ER. I observed in the emergency department, followed along with the registration desk employees, and was trained on the Health Quest computer system to gather information on how to fix the policy. I also collected all insurance information from every coordinator and created a data base so new associates can easily gain access to all insurance companies. Created maps with the original floor plans of the hospital showing how to get to the conference rooms. I also wrote directions to every location in the hospital.

Speaking Spanish in Spain

Lori
Major: Health Professions I worked with physical therapists, psychiatrists, a nurse to assistant in the daily activities provided within the school and the residential facility. I assisted within the classroom setting, therapy setting as well as the physical therapy sessions in the gym as well as the hydrotherapy in the spa. I assisted in feeding residents who do not have use of their hands as well as bathroom assistance.

Clinica Santa Maria

Connie
Major: Health Professions I helped with outreach events and programs that were hosted by Clinica Santa Maria. I also helped to finish an application for a grant that will help bring a maternal infant health program on board at the clinic. We hope that the program will grow after starting at the clinic.

Learning the Roles of an Inpatient Neuroscience Unit Within the Hospital

Paul
Major: Health Professions As an intern within the Hauenstein Center, I was privileged to provide care for a diverse population of patients suffering from a variety of medical issues. Most of my daily tasks consisted of working with patients by taking vital signs, providing help with daily activities such as bathing and eating, transferring patients to other units in the hospital, taking blood sugars, and learning how to provide specific care for different diagnoses. Through doing this, I was able to learn the roles of different clinicians on the unit and spend time with physicians, physicians assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, registered nurses, health care managers, and nurse technicians.

A Summer in Dublin

Tatiana
Major: Health Professions During my internship, I rotated through the hospital. I spent most of my time in finance, patient support and cardiac with some days observing labs, conferences, and the play room. Most of my work in finance was based around getting new bills from the post, sorting them and putting them into the computer. In the cardiac department, I spent a lot of time updating charts and making sure they charts are where they are supposed to be in the hospital. I observed some cardiac conferences about patients and planning their treatment. I also observed some cardiac cath procedures. During my time in patient support, I helped release copies of patient charts requested under the Freedom of Information act. I also logged complaints, compliments, thank you cards and parliamentary questions on the database. I visited the microbiology, histology, biochemistry and hematology labs for a few hours each lab to get a taste of what they do and how it is important. Because I didn't have a degree, they couldn't let me do any work in those labs, as that is customary in Ireland.

Process Excellence

Jessica
Major: Health Professions The internship I completed was in Process Excellence which uses management philosophies like lean to help healthcare improve quality while reducing costs and becoming more efficient overall. As a process excellence Intern I observed the Consultant during her advising/coaching sessions with clinical and administrative staff on designing as well as implementing system-wide interventions to improve clinical, process, operational and service outcomes. I got to participate in using lean tools such as value stream mapping to make improvements to the patient wait times in Wege Lab. I also helped implement a Kanban system in Cytology, Histology, and Specimen control. I also partook in developing a standard work for the process excellence department and a structure or idea for a training system for new specialists. In addition to implementing lean tools I as able to observe managers meetings which helped me better understand the value and importance of the Process excellence consultant.

Oasis of Opportunity

Cameron
Major: Health Professions Through my time at Oasis I had the opportunity to shadow many medical practitioners (PA, MD, DO, and NP), observe/participate in the administration side of healthcare, assist in writing stories for donors, advertise medical services, update medical records, and assist patients acquire prescription assistance, among others.