Internship Power Point

By Lillian Tribble

Introduction: This is a slide show that displays the details of my internship at the

Palmetto Health Heart Hospital in Columbia ,S.C. during the Summer of 2016.

My career goal is to become a registered nurse who works in a hospital. Because I am interested in becoming a nurse, I decided to do my internship with the nursing team at the Palmetto Health Heart Hospital. The Heart Hospital is a part of Palmetto Health which is a health care system. This system contains several hospitals in the Columbia area; therefore, I was able to shadow nurses in other hospitals as well.

I did my internship with Susan Low, Director of Nursing for the Heart Hospital, and Kim Wallace, Operations Manager for the Heart Hospital.

In the next four slides, you will see photos of my internship site, a description of the site, and the site’s vision statement, mission statement, and values.

You can also find photos of me performing my internship activities and responsibilities. These photos will have a discussion summary with them to explain what is happening in the photo.

Lastly, you will find descriptions of various projects I completed during my internship and a conclusion slide.

Internship Site Photos:

• Above are two photo of the Palmetto Health Heart Hospital. The photo on the left displays the outside of the hospital and the photo on the right displays a photo of the hospital from the inside.

• I spent most of my internship in the Palmetto Health Heart Hospital. • It is the only free standing heart hospital in South Carolina dedicated solely

to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease.• It is adjacent to Palmetto Health Richland Hospital.

To the left is a photo of Palmetto Health Richland Hospital. I shadowed in the emergency room, the neonatal intensive care unit, and in the Children’s Hospital at Palmetto Health Richland.

To the right is a photo of Palmetto Health Baptist. I worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at this hospital for one day.

Internship Site Photos:

Description of the Internship Site:

The Palmetto Health Heart Hospital opened in 2006 and since then has won several awards for outstanding care. One of these awards was the “Best Hospital for Heart Health” in TheState’s annual best contest. TheState is a newspaper about news in South Carolina. The hospital has also won the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry ACTION Registry Gold Performance Achievement Award.

The Heart Hospital has 124 beds divided between six suites or units. There are three units that are for more intensive care including the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit(CVICU), the Cardiac Care Unit(CCU) ,and the Hartwell Suite. The other three units include the Moultrie Suite, the Marian Suite, and the Murray Suite.

I did not stay in one specific department during the course of my internship. I was glad I did not stay in a specific department because it made my internship more fruitful. I learned more than I ever thought I would by visiting other departments.

Palmetto Health’s Mission, Vision, and Values:

Below you can find the mission statement, vision statement, and values of the health care system, Palmetto Health.

Palmetto Health’s mission: Palmetto Health is committed to improving the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of all individuals and communities we serve; to providing care with excellence and compassion; and, to working with others who share our fundamental commitment to improving the human condition.

Palmetto Health’s Vision: To be remembered by each patient as providing the care and compassion we want for our families and ourselves.

Palmetto Health’s Values: Integrity, Compassion, Excellence, Dignity, and Teamwork

I chose to do my internship at the Palmetto Health Heart Hospital because I admired the staff’s work ethic and quality of care. Also, I am interested in the cardiovascular system.

Activities and Responsibilities

In the next few slides, you will find photos and descriptions of my various activities and responsibilities. You should see four activities in this presentation. Each activity is numbered at the top of the slide.

1. Assisting the Nurse with any Procedure

I was able to shadow multiple registered nurses and nurse practitioners during my internship.

When I shadowed any type of nurse, I tried to be of assistance whenever possible.

This assistance included collecting supplies needed, distributing the supplies to the nurse when needed, cleaning any supplies used, and throwing away any supplies used.

In the next four slides, you will find three photos of me performing the actions mentioned above.

This is a photo of me pulling “large gauze” for a R.N. to use for the replacement of a bandage.

I cleaned any equipment, counter space, or table used by the R.N. I shadowed that day.

• In this photo, I am holding a “Wound V.A.C.” which stands for Wound Vacuum-Assisted Closure. The nurse practitioner that I worked with several times had to replace “Wound V.A.C.s” on multiple patients.

• To help this N.P., I cut the sponge(black item) to fit the wound and cut the clear tape to fit over the sponge. The N.P. also let me place the clear tape over the wound while she held the sponge in place.

• I really enjoyed helping the N.P. do this. I think “Wound V.A.C.s” are a great tool to use in the hospital.

2. Attending Meetings: Because my preceptor is

involved in administration, I attended several meetings with her. My preceptor attends any meeting that involves nursing including, nurse’s huddle; department meetings; nursing director meetings; data analysis meetings; safety and quality meetings; nursing education meetings; etc.

The most common meeting I went to with her was Nurse’s Huddle at 8 a.m. every morning. Nurse’s Huddle includes the charge nurse from each unit or suite in the Heart Hospital, the Nursing Director, and the Operations Manager.

To the right is a photo of a room that is similar to the room Nurse’s Huddle was held in.

3. Learning: One of my intentions for this internship

was to learn as much as possible about a hospital environment, patient care, and patient illnesses.

I was able to do this by observing the hospital staff and studying the materials the hospital provides for patient learning.

In the next two slides, you will see photos of some of the posters and models I was able to learn about.

• To the left, you can see a photo of a poster in a clinic in the Palmetto Health Heart Hospital.

• This poster is used to teach patients about their heart and cardiovascular system. Doctors and nurses use this poster to answer any questions the patient has about their heart and cardiovascular system.

• By using a poster to show the patient what is going on in their body’s, the provider is accommodating to those who do not know health literacy.

• To right is a model of an abdominal aneurysm.

• An abdominal aneurysm is caused by the weakening of the arterial walls, hypertension, injury to the artery, aging, and any abnormality.

• This model shows the budging that an abdominal aneurysm causes and a stent graft that is inserted by a vascular surgeon to prevent the aneurysm from becoming larger and rupturing.

• This model was used in the clinic for cardiovascular surgery. I was able to shadow the nurse that runs the clinic.

• This is a photo of me rubbing in antibacterial foam. Palmetto Health practices the “foam in and foam out” policy. Providers or any visitor should apply the antibacterial foam to their hands every time they walk into and out of a patient’s room.

• There is also antibacterial lotion in the hallways for visitors and providers.

• Palmetto Health does a great job with applying the antibacterial substances.

4. Sanitizing

Internship Project Descriptions:

I completed several projects during my internship. Some of these projects I was assigned right away ,and some I thought of along the way.

In the next three slides, you will find a description of these projects.

You can see the actual projects on my WIX portfolio under the internship tab.

Project One: The first project I completed during my

internship was to create four spreadsheets using data from patient satisfaction surveys that were clear and easy to edit.

Two of the spreadsheets created displayed data from previous years to show areas that were successful and not as successful.

The other two spreadsheets compared questions from the two surveys I worked with to also show improvement. For example, one of the questions on the survey was how well did your physician communicate to you the plan of care , and the comparison spread sheet would should an average of the score on this question to show improvement or a decline in quality of care.

Project Two: The second project I did was on the

Accountable Care Unit. This project included a brief overview of the A.C.U. model, a description of the A.C.U. for Heart Failure patients at my internship site, and interviews that I did with the staff with worked in the A.C.U. for Heart Failure patients at my internship site.

The A.C.U. at my internship site, the Palmetto Health Heart Hospital, is one of the only A.C.U.s for Heart Failure patients in the United States. My preceptor wanted me to get to know more about the A.C.U. model because it has been so successful; therefore, I decided to do a project on it.

Project Three: The third project I completed during my internship was

a comparison between the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit between two hospitals within the healthcare system of Palmetto Health.

I am interested in the N.I.C.U. because my mom was a nurse in one many years ago. When I told my preceptor this, she gave me the opportunity to observe or shadow in the N.I.C.U. at Palmetto Health Richland. After shadowing in the Richland N.I.C.U., a nurse at Palmetto Health Baptist gave me the opportunity to shadow in their N.I.C.U.

Because I was given the chance to shadow in both of these units and noticed multiple differences, I decided to do a comparison project using the observations I saw.

I also created a flyer or newsletter that can be given to parents when their baby is checked into the N.I.C.U.

Conclusion: As you can see, my internship was very

unique in that I was able to do and see many different things throughout the hospital.

By seeing the different departments of a hospital, I was able to learn more about nursing care and how it can vary.

The example that the Palmetto Health Nurses set will be an example I will try to follow in the future.

After completing this internship, I am confident that I chose the right career for me.