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Erin Riehle Posts: 34
9/17/2019
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I'm interested in talking to teams who have programs in medium size hospitals - approximately 150-200 beds. Particularly interested in how you've developed internships in small departments.
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Posts:
9/19/2019
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This is my second year as the P.S. teacher in a medium sized hospital. When I first started the established departments were Environmental Services, Laundry, Kitchen Utility, Dietary Aid, Stock Clerk, Facilities, and Outpatient Rehab. I have worked with our hospital liaison, who is also in charge of volunteer services, to expand into different departments. She helps make the connection between departments who are asking for volunteer help and our program. From there, it is all about developing relationships. I have found that when developing a new rotation, myself and our skills trainer provide a lot of support at the beginning. This helps them learn how to work with the interns and develops a sense of trust that we will be there as needed.
The new rotations we have developed have been in the information services department (IT support), Surgical Services (supplies in the OR), and Diagnostic Imaging (patients, stocking, cleaning, copies, etc.).
The other thing that has helped us expand into different departments is always being available to help with different short-term projects. Our liaison knows she can call on us during our class time to help with projects and I offer our time during transition weeks. This allows the interns to use different skills and meet different people throughout the hospital.
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Erin Riehle Posts: 34
9/24/2019
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I love your idea about expanding internships by assisting with different short-term projects. Thanks!
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Lisa Laqua Posts: 13
10/22/2019
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Fairbanks Project SEARCH grew from having 9 internship sites in 2015 to over 20 in 2016. I found that getting into department meetings worked well for presenting them with our purpose. You have to be able to explain how your intern can "lighten the load" for some of their staff members. Word of mouth is always the best, so I utilize quotes from our long-standing supervisors when presenting to potential department leaders. It also helps if you can get a member of the HR team on your steering committee. Fortunately, our business liaison is part of the HR department here, but her supervisor was made a part of the team to help build those relationships throughout the hospital. Keep in mind that the folks you are talking to are very busy, so keep it brief and to the point. Create a handout that can be viewed at a later date. It also helps if your hospital has a Public Relations department that will help highlight your program.
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Guest
10/24/2019
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Everyone has had such great input, we have had success with similar ideas! Our site in Wausau has 200-300 beds i beleieve? This is our second year, when we started last year, we had 9 departments. By graduation, we were in 23, and this year we are up to about 26 sofar, and in the process of adding more. I do have to say, we are VERY lucky at the location we are at as everyone has been incredibly welcoming. The employees here have been advocates for our interns and hype them up every chance they get, they have even convinced other departments to jump on board. Some of the departments we have as our "extra work" departments, meaning if we have an intern that can not be in their department for one reason or another, we send them there and they always have something they can do. These departments dont have enough work to have an intern consistantly though, which is why we use them "as needed" both on their end as well as ours. The other part of having so many departments is doing half days, they maybe dont have enough work to fill a whole day, but can find 2-3 hours of work a day, so we split it that way as well. As far as getting into new departments, what has worked for us is simply shadowing them for a day and looking for things that an intern can do. We look for things that are "busy work" and make those tasks for the intern. We also explain to them that the intern will have a skills trainer with them at first to ease the department and intern into the newness of the program within the depatement. We are also very close with HR as we have our business liason through them, they are a great resource! Another idea I have seen from a different site is a promo video, they show to new employees and students to get them a good understanding of the program!
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