University of Utah Medical Center, CARMA

The last year of volunteering with CARMA has been an exceptional opportunity. I have met many amazing people, learned a couple great new skills, and expanded my knowledge of the medical research world immensely. The first six months were hard trying to accustom myself to CorView and to my team, complete my training, and try to figure out a good schedule to get up to Salt Lake but I enjoyed every moment and all the stress was worth it in the end. The last six months have been awesome, especially these last couple summer months that I’ve just been able to dedicate myself entirely to working with my team.

 I always knew that there is need for repetition in science to confirm a study, but I never realized how hard it is to work through all that repetition wondering if it is going to produce a result. Part of it is fun and exhilarating, but it’s mostly just stressful! The significance of this experience for me has been a big one. I feel like I have boosted my self-esteem when it comes to making a difference, being knowledgeable about something, and working on a team. Seeing something that I’m doing have a direct impact on the health of others is very rewarding and something I hope to do all my life. I also came to know some things about myself. I realized that, although I like many aspects research, I miss the face to face interactions that come with working in other areas of the medical field. I spent many hours alone in the office working on whatever project was at hand and I always felt a relief to get out and about afterwards.

 I think the biggest benefit that this internship has had for me is that it has helped me realize that I can do great things. I can be a part of an idea that makes a difference for others. I can think of new ways to improve healthcare. I can work in an important team. I wouldn’t trade this experience, if feel like it has really shaped my life in a very wonderful way.
-Tyson 

Patient Experience Internship at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center

During Winter Semester 2015, I realized how important it was I start taking the initiative to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. The countless options were daunting and all I knew was that I had to start somewhere. I had the fortune of talking to the right person at the right time. One day, I noticed a fellow student wearing a suit. I asked him what he was wearing the suit for and he ended up sharing with me an e-mail address I later used to get myself involved in the Patient Experience Internship at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. I took the internship as a way to help me accomplish two goals; to help me find out if I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, and help me develop the communication skills I would need in any future career.

The Patient Experience Internship was unlike anything I had expected. I found it to be an amazing networking opportunity. I met several administrators and managers from the hospital and I even got to work alongside them in several service projects. I learned to incorporate the hospitals motto into my life, “Helping people live the healthiest lives possible.” Our internship itself also had another motto, “Be always.” The internship was geared at helping us become the best employee possible at all times; to teach us what grit, hard work, and ingenuity were. Our main goal was to improve the experience each patient had in the hospital, and it was solely our responsibility to form relationships with the patients, the nurses, and their managers to make sure changes were made to improve the hospital’s overall rating.

The environment that exists in Intermountain Healthcare is unique. Walking into the hospital quickly became my favorite part of the day. The employees are trained to smile and greet you. I got to have meaningful conversations with many of them. I even had lunch with several employees. The nurse manager taught me a lot about how to reward employees and how to run an office with love and respect. I admired the things he taught me and the insight he had on healthcare. With his help, and the help of the other interns, I learned to communicate with patients during their darkest hour to help them feel less anxiety. With the patients, I incorporated the things I learned from the nurse manager and I had even more meaningful conversations.

 I ended up putting a lot more time than I had previously anticipated into this internship. If I could go back, I would probably sign up for another credit. I left the internship being reassured that healthcare is the most rewarding career I could pick and I would not rather be doing anything else. Being able to leave each day knowing I made a difference is something I definitely want to have in my career. Over time, it was interesting to see how much easier it was to communicate with patients and nurses at times when communicating may have been difficult or even painful. I am excited to apply what I learn into my future jobs and Internships and I hope I now have the tools I need to really make a difference in the lives of many people.                         

-Jared 

Intermountain Healthcare

            My internship at Intermountain Healthcare was one of my strongest learning experiences I have had at BYU.  Through daily experience, the changing world of healthcare was explained effectively.  I saw what hospitals are doing to get ready for Obamacare, by preparing their staffs and programs to efficiently maintain the rules of Obamacare.  Without my internship, my knowledge of HCAPHS would be minimal. Now I know staff performance affects each hospital’s reimbursement rate.

            In my internship, my main responsibility was “rounding on” patients, asking questions about their care in the Emergency Department.  Hospitals will only receive full reimbursements from the government by improving their HCAPHS scores. The best way for hospitals to heighten their HCAPHS scores is by improving nurse communication consistency, responsiveness, and pain management.  Nurse communication is the biggest contributor to a hospital’s HCAPHS scores. So, my job, when I went “rounding on” patients would be to ask all important questions.  How is the medicine to take?  What did they expect from the information from their labs or tests?  What was their pain level?  For the most part in talking about their care, all of the patients had the best things to say about the nurses and staff members.

Truly, the nurses that work in the emergency department are some of the brightest nurses I have ever encountered. Several of the patients echoed that belief back to me.  I once saw a nurse helping a patient carry her belongings, including a baby, to the patient’s car.  A nurse’s ability to make a patient not only understand but care about a patient, I believe, makes them gain their health back more quickly.  I had a fantastic time rubbing elbows, and gaining wisdom from the nurses.

Next, the actual staff helped me to see the process of running a hospital.  Each has their part or specific job.  Those who take blood, those who give breathing treatments, those who take x-rays each have a specific task to accomplish that must be done properly to maintain the scores each hospital receives.   And the fact that those individuals all work independently throughout the day or night shift illustrates that a hospital would be a large undertaking for an administrator.   The doctors, though the directing part of the system by ordering labs, treatments and procedures, are only a small part of a much larger service.

It could seem daunting to manage a group as diverse as the staff at a hospital, or, at least highly problematic without a specific protocol of enforcement.  I was able to see this firsthand with the use of a program that all the interns were asked to work with, called AIDET.  AIDET stands for acknowledge, introduce, duration, explain, and thank you.  AIDET is one of the up and coming “best practices” programs that hospitals are starting to use.  Intermountain was one of the first to implement AIDET.  This program illustrates the quality a hospital can achieve with their patients.  It takes consistency to work through problems of duration with patients. The problem that Intermountain has been having is to get all staff members to commit to use AIDET with every patient under their care.  The nurses that were committed to AIDET performed efficiently with enhanced communication.  However, the nurses that didn’t commit to AIDET struggled with their communication skills and had inconsistent results.

My increase of knowledge of the health care system is something I needed not only for my professional life but my personal life as well.  This opportunity to do an internship at Intermountain Healthcare helped me plan for my professional career quite specifically.  If a person’s understanding of a future job can be enhanced through knowledge of how a system works, then the chances of a consistent, enjoyable job is also more likely.  This internship taught me so much about how hospitals operate and the problems hospitals face.  The depth and breadth of diverse problems a hospital can face took time to believe.  At one point I wondered if it were possible to overcome the budget and human communication problems I saw.  Yet, once I began to learn the various protocols that were used in the emergency department I could see that skills could increase if they were followed, especially by using the HCAPHS scoring system.

Further, the guest speakers we had throughout the internship became a highlight of my time by giving me insight into different fields within healthcare. There was one common theme from the guest speakers, and it was how they got to where they are now.  All of them had very different paths getting into healthcare, an assortment of varying degrees and jobs they worked in before coming to Intermountain.  Since I am now considering becoming a hospital administrator, the path of the speakers was of keen interest to me.  Do I go for an MBA or an MPA?  How many years of experience should I strive to get before I enter graduate school?  Each speaker helped me look at decisions I was about to make. The Intermountain internship was a great experience that I would definitely recommend to anyone thinking about looking to work in the healthcare career field.  

Intermountain Healthcare: UVRMC Patient Experience Administrative Internship--Kody

PATIENT EXPERIENCE INTERNSHIP

Over the course of Fall Semester 2013, it was my pleasure to be on the Patient Experience team at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, part of the Intermountain Healthcare system.  This internship allowed me the opportunity to interact daily with the administration of the hospital.  For a person interested in pursuing a future in Healthcare Administration, this internship is a great tool.

A typical day...well there is no typical day in administration, there is always something new!  I was assigned to work in the Emergency Department validating caregiver behavior and ensuring excellent patient care.  It was not uncommon to meet regularly with upper management in board meetings, weekly team huddles, and a quarterly Leadership Summit.  I learned how to understand the language of healthcare in current times, and gained a better understanding of its future.

Every week the interns met in a team meeting to listen to healthcare professionals discuss
ways to improve patient experience and overall better clinical outcomes.  In this meeting, the interns are also assigned to read and discuss a book or two that educates on an evidence based framework that reduces patient anxiety and improves clinical communication.

All-in-all I learned so much about the ins and outs of the administration of a hospital.  I have decided from this internship that healthcare administration is for me!

Provo, UT; SOS Physical Therapy- Andrew

Before working at SOS Physical Therapy, I’d never been in a physical therapist’s office.  During my college career, I’ve changed my major and career path a few times.  Physical therapy is a relatively recent career choice, which means I haven’t had the opportunity to do any job shadowing.  Having never needed physical therapy personally, I’d never been in a physical therapist’s office until I started working at SOS Physical Therapy.

My time at SOS Physical Therapy has helped me better understand physical therapy.  I’ve seen things that strengthen my desire to become a physical therapist and other things that make me wonder if I want to pursue such a career.  It’s helped me see that there are different kinds of physical therapy.  Working at SOS Physical Therapy has proved to be a valuable, eye-opening experience.

For more information about SOS Physical therapy visit  http://www.sosphysicaltherapy.com/index.html  

Peru Global Health Study Abroad through the University of Utah School of Medicine - Steven Nevers

Last summer I was privileged to participate in the Peru Global Health Study Abroad through the University of Utah School of Medicine. We spent five weeks working throughout Peru: in Lima, Huaraz, and Trujillo. We were able to work with local healthcare providers and complete research projects.

It was a whirlwind experience but it really was amazing. Here are some of the things I learned/benefits:

(1) Growing up I was used to how the healthcare system works in the United States. Whether visiting a clinic to get immunizations, visiting a hospitalized family member, or visiting a clinic. I was able to see the healthcare system in a 3rd world country. The differences between the poor hospitals, the social security hospitals, and the private hospitals.

(2) I was able to complete two research projects. The first project was a secondary analysis of data from a neonatal asphyxia training program. The second is a follow-up project on folic acid fortification in the bread in Peru in the hopes to preventing spina bifida. Both projects were presented at the 23^rd Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care (Orlando, Florida) hosted by Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The asphyxia project was presented at the Global Family Health and Development Conference (Provo, Utah) hosted by Brigham Young University.

(3) I was able to interact with four different medical doctors over the 5 weeks. It was great to be able to get to know them personally. Often doctors can be busy or distant and it is hard to get to have a conversation with them.

It is through the University of Utah but I was accepted as a Brigham Young University student.

Here are some pictures:

Summit of a large mountain a few hours outside Huaraz, Peru

One of the rooms of the NICU (neonatal intensive care units) in
La Maternidad (largest birthing hospital in Peru)

Local hospital in Trujillo, Peru

Machu Picchu

For more information:
http://www.globalhealth.utah.edu/where/programs/Peru.html
http://perustudyabroad.org/