My Internship

It looks like I have fallen into the blogging trap I've seen others fall into: that of not blogging at all because it's too overwhelming to catch up with one's self. So I shall do my best to rectify the situation, although looking ahead schedule-wise, I question my success in this endeavor. Nevertheless, I enjoy writing, and so I'll give it a shot again…

I shall begin with a bit about my internship this past summer. I have alluded to it several times but haven't really addressed how it went. I chose to do my internship at the small hospital near my home—mainly because I wanted to save on gas. As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised at the professionalism of the personnel at MCF. MCF is a small 25-bed critical access hospital. It was bought by MCBG back in 2000, I think, and with the resources of "the mother ship" behind it, MCF has flourished and is a beautiful little hospital.

Part of my internship requirements had me going into the many different departments of the hospital. For example, I got to see the laboratory, radiology, cardiac rehab, nursing, environmental services, facilities management, dietary, process improvement, and cost accounting, just to name a few. I found it all highly interesting, and I made a great many friends as I flitted about.

I had my own office, in which I spent many hours working on my various papers and eventually, my internship project.

My project ended up being a bit different than the one I had anticipated doing. MCF has plans for renovating their 1960's kitchen. My preceptor, the administrator of the hospital, wanted me to research and come up with a design for their renovation. She wanted me to focus on the ergonomic aspect, in particular. In addition, she sent me to MCBG to take part in Lean Sigma training, which is about reducing waste in processes. I really enjoyed my project, and I spent many hours back in that kitchen, measuring existing equipment and talking with the kitchen workers.

The number one complaint of the workers was the three compartment sink. If nothing else happens to improve their kitchen lives, they want that sink raised. Here is a picture of my buddy Mike doing a demonstration as to why he considers it too low. My back hurts just looking at it.

I was given the opportunity to present my project to upper management, which was a little nerve-wracking. It went well though, and they seemed to be so appreciative of all the many, many hours I put into it.

On my last day, Mike caught up with me in the hall. He hadn't realized it was my last day, and I had to remind him that my being there was always known to be a temporary thing. "I know," he said glumly. "But when you get used to somebody being around, you don't really like to see them leave." I thought that was so sweet. And I miss him too.