As an intern in finance, one of my main goals would be to understand how finances run through this mental health facility from beginning to end. I plan to do this before December by collaborating with employees from three different sections that mainly contribute to the revenue cycle. These departments will include Admissions, Health Information Services, and Utilization Case Management. I will be gathering documents and information from each of these departments and putting them together to create a visual revenue cycle. I will observe employees to be able to understand the process of referrals and authorizations better to ensure that the finance department will be able to collect money for the services provided. This will hopefully satisfy this goal because my experiences and collected data will outline the process of how the company ends up getting paid. After all these experiences are complete, I will use the data to put together charts and graphs that will not only help me understand how the revenue cycle works but will help others in the company better understand as well.

Another one of the professional goals that I would like to achieve during my internship is growing my skills and public speaking and communication. On my internship site, there are a lot of ways that I can achieve this goal during the 16 weeks. The first of my task that I have been doing is calling providers for a resident that is soon to be discharged. This helps my public speaking and communication because it gets me comfortable speaking professionally to other professionals. Towards the end of my internship, I am also expected to help present the Data that I’ve collected of the revenue cycle that I mentioned earlier. This presentation will be in a board meeting. Preparing for and presenting in this meeting will grow my skills in public speaking. This is because I will be speaking in front of the CEO, board members, and other staff members. I also plan to build my communication skills by mimicking the actions of those that are teaching me. All of the administrative departments are separate, but they are constantly communicating with each other to make sure that information is clear, and tasks are completed. No matter the task I am assigned, I will have to communicate with other departments, whether by phone, face-to-face, or email.

A very important and professional goal for me would be to figure out how I would like to use my degree. During my internship, I will be working in an array of departments. I am hoping that through this work I will realize the type of work that I have a passion for and the type of work that I would rather not do. my earlier interests in certain departments and healthcare administration were not backed by experiences. Through my time at the Barry Robinson Center, I hope to have a clear vision of the sector in which I would like to be working. I can gain some of this knowledge by really digging deep in each of the departments that I am working in to make sure that I am doing actual work that will show me whether I have an interest in it or not. I can also achieve this goal by paying close attention to my mentors and taking notes on how they feel about their job and the type of work that they do. I can see how those who do not like their job behave versus those who love their job.