I have learned a lot in my first three weeks interning at Bon Secours. A lot of my interactions within the organization have been through meetings with Susan. Through attending several conference calls, I have learned about the rules and regulations regarding provider-based clinics, which directly affect the outpatient infusion clinics. I have also attended staff meetings at the Southside and Bremo sites, which allowed me to see the important issues faced at each clinic and get to know the staff. Susan is also working with other departments to create a more streamlined workflow between the infusion sites and pharmacy. This has allowed me to see current processes and practices and the opportunity to brainstorm creative solutions. We recently attended a presentation regarding nursing recruitment and retention strategies. While I am not in the nursing field, it allowed me to see an example of an organization’s strategic plan to handle a large-scale staffing shortage. The ideas and processes proposed are concepts that could easily be translated to another discipline.

Susan has also been helping me to network and sit with other colleagues to see different areas of Bon Secours. Thus far, I have worked with a finance director and a patient access supervisor. These interactions have widened my scope of observation and practice at Bon Secours. My duties thus far have included conducting research into leadership and the charge nurse role as well as new CMS guidelines for outpatient services. Susan is helping to draft new policy and documentation to comply with the new guidelines, so I have been assisting her in that task. I also have been responsible for keeping minutes during meetings and sending them out to the staff afterwards. I have never been in this type of job before, so these tasks have helped me learn how to draft an agenda, keep minutes, and eventually run a meeting. We do a lot of travelling for work, so Susan has been a great resource for me to ask a lot of questions on topics that require hands-on experience, rather than theory in a textbook. For example, she had to have a difficult conversation with a nurse who was not engaged, leaving early and arriving late, and not getting along with her peers.

In the next part of my internship, I will begin putting together the welcome packet for infusion and implementing them at the different sites. Overall, I am enjoying the work so far and am excited to continue.