Alana Monson (MHA '23): University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics - Support Services

Hello from Iowa City! This summer I have been working as an administrative intern at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in the support services track under my preceptor and director of support services, Jennifer Miller. Support services encompasses many non-clinical departments including environmental services, safety and security, accreditation, food and nutrition services, supply chain, and many more.

My main project this summer is “Surplus Round-Up.” For this project, we are working on gathering and disposing of surplus items from the hospital to prepare for the Joint Commission. I have worked with environmental services to prepare a new surplus removal request process to make it easier on employees to submit removal requests and the marketing and communication team to send out announcements in the UIHC Noon News and the Loop (UIHC’s internal communication portal) promoting the event.

I have also worked closely with safety and security learning many different facets of the visitor management process. While I have helped support their current processes, there are different programs and processes they will begin implementing soon to improve efficiency, so it has been exciting to see this in motion. While the work is great, my favorite part of working with safety and security is hearing stories from when the security officers and directors used to work as policemen and SWAT team members.

The space survey is another big part of this internship where UIHC and UIP interns work together to survey all space owned by the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. This has been a great opportunity to explore the hospital and learn about some departments I might not have otherwise. Some cool things I have been able to explore and discover in the hospital include a gymnasium for rehab patients, sand pits (not sure what these are for), gothic architecture on the outside of general hospital, and the 12^th floor of the children’s hospital where you can see for miles.

Seminars and rounding are another fun part of the UIHC internship. UIHC, UIP, and OSCEP interns all participate in seminars where different departments are featured to talk about how they contribute to the hospital, current challenges they are facing, and any other questions we may have for them. Only UIHC interns participate in rounding where we visit other departments and see first-hand the services they provide. Through this we have been able to see areas like the hospital salon that Volunteer Services supports and the kitchen, food storage locations, and compost areas that Food and Nutrition supports.

Outside of the internship, I have enjoyed spending time with my fellow MHA classmates, my eight roommates, and my family while bowling, going on walks, going to concerts (Trapt, Tracy Byrd, and hopefully Hairball later this summer), boating, and any other fun activities we can find.

From working on projects to exploring the hospital to eating lunch with other interns and co-workers, this internship has been great so far, and I’m looking forward to the last four weeks to come!

*A Note From The Editor*

If you would like to keep up with Alana, you can find her here on LinkedIn!