Summer Internships: Mercy Des Moines

By Megan Browning

Hiya everyone! As week three of my Mercy internship come to a close, I am officially 25% done my Mercy experience. That's all I am going to say about that because, in all honesty, I am terrified at the thought of it ending!

Anyways, I had quite the week this week! Here are some big events!
Monday began with an email from one of my VP's requesting my presence in his office. That sounds much more dramatic than it really was, as I really enjoy spending time with my both of my bosses. Both are incredibly intelligent and never cease to teach me something new. Moving on, I wandered up to the administration department to present a draft of the volume, market share, and service availability analysis I have been working on for a future presentation my preceptor will be giving. I have discovered I enjoy data mining much more than my Biostats experience led me to believe. 

The many versions of my dashboard

Much to my surprise, I found myself back in a classroom on Tuesday. I took the first round of the second lecture series in the Process Improvement series, Introduction to Huddles. For those of you not aware, Huddles are a method of gathering daily in order to boost communication, track performance, and enhance team participation/ownership in the process of care.

Wednesday morning actually started without me, as my second  project  was presented for feedback. Now, this was somewhat daunting for several reasons. First, they had originally thought the planning/data guru of Mercy was going to complete this project, only to have me sprung on them last week. Second, they had provided me with a layout that I promptly discarded and built my own. Needless to say, when both the planning guru and VP of Networks walked over to my cube following the meeting, I was praying for positive news! I am going to credit the fact that my office is fifty feet from a chapel with the incredibly positive news I received: They loved the layout, the formatting, everything. I did have to make several changes, but overall the news was great.

My clubs!

Thursday: Kyle and I mapped out and began our newest project a community needs assessment for the Cancer Center then went on an impromptu field trip to Bloomfield, Iowa, to observe my boss give a presentation. Kyle and I were recruited mainly for chauffeur (Kyle) and navigation services (me), and it was incredibly fun driving 2.5 hours there and back! Learning all about my boss was definitely what made the trip. While I already knew that I had a "cool boss", I did not realize just how interesting is! We listened to the CD of his original music (super fun) and found out that he has met all of  the original members of the Who, Tom Jones and Ron Howard.

Friday: Kyle and I ducked out of the office a bit early to practice for the charity golf tournament we will be playing in on Monday, making today my second attempt at golfing. Currently, as long as the ball moves forward, I give myself a high five. I am mostly excited about my clubs, which are both pink and glittery. I have matching golf balls too. That’s really all I’m worried about.