As of January 13th, I will be serving as a Community Relations intern for Piedmont Athens Regional. This page will serve as documentation of my daily and weekly discussions and summaries of my tasks and competencies. I look forward to noting and discussing what I’m able to do this semester!

Daily Tasks: 1/13-1/16

On 1/13, I had my first full day of interning. I arrived and met with the members that were in the office at this time. I was given a tour of the office by TG (using initials for privacy) and immediately met the faces behind the health screenings/wellness fairs (HB) and the wellness classes (KC). After my introductions, I sat with HB behind their desk. Initially, they gave me an overview of their health screenings, wellness fairs, and educational history in this position. This included different types of screenings provided thus far, including weight, BMI, cholesterol (total and HDL), and glucose. In addition, complete metabolic profiles have been screened. HB and I discussed how these different and combined screening measures have led to insight for the wellness fairs and educational materials provided. I learned that more often than not, industrial workplaces are the most receptive and requesting these low-cost screenings and fair opportunities. After reviewing these materials, HB and I discussed how these screenings are actually used to create and implement workplace initiatives. For example, recent initiatives to increase step count, with a company provided monetary incentive, showed little positive outcome. Additionally, sedentary fairs within workplaces with no incentive showed little engagement. I was asked to think about what initiatives might work in varying settings to improve productivity and health outcomes. I discussed a first-step idea of tailoring health needs to a company based on their main two health issues based on that company’s biometrics and screening results. Following this discussion and time to think, I assisted HB in reviewing and inputting biometric data to review at a later date, to then design recommendations and educational materials. As I was sitting in HB’s office, I was able to meet the people behind the maternity programs (SR), the Safe Kids Athens program (AD), and community engagement (TM). I spoke with SR about opportunities to attend and aid in maternity classes later in the week and for the rest of the semester. After I was shown to other areas of the hospital that held items I may need when helping each person, I discussed with TG some ideas and plans with each lead for the remainder of the week. By then, it was time for me to leave for the day.

1/14: Today I entered the office and immediately began reviewing and checking employee biometric data with HB, ensuring that the data was accurate to send to the company’s insurance. Together, we ensured that the data was entered correctly, and discussed the educational implications based on the employees’ weight, waist measurement, BMI, glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure. We decided the largest health issues among these were cholesterol levels and waist measurement proportion. This will dictate the focus of future health fairs’ for this specific company. After this, I assisted TG with counting and organizing handouts for a health fair event this weekend in Greensboro. I counted stuffed animals to ensure there were enough to supply any children, and packaged notebooks, pens, chapstick, tissues, and hand sanitizer. The purpose of these items is to attract people to the Piedmont tent, to then receive general health education and learn about services Piedmont offers. After I ate lunch, I joined a Zoom call with TG, HB, and Piedmont’s partner at The Blood Connection. On this call, we scheduled the blood drive dates hosted at Piedmont. Also, we asked questions regarding what The Blood Connection has noticed to be effective marketing. Based on their response, we decided to place flyers about the drive on each hospital wings bulletin board (located in their common spaces), as well as putting them in protective coverings in the hospital’s cafeteria. We also found out that after the first drive, we can be notified of how much blood was donated by Piedmont staff, and will use this to highlight impact and encourage future donations. After this meeting was complete, I joined TG for a meeting at the Athens-Clarke County Library. Here, we met with three community partners that work through the library. I learned that, prior to my internship, this group launched “Baby’s First Book.” This is an initiative among Piedmont and the ACC Library, providing new mothers in the mother-baby unit at Piedmont with tote bags that include a library card, a children’s book, information on support groups, and a stuffed animal. This aims to improve children’s literacy, beginning at a young age. In this meeting, we discussed the frequency of this initiative for the year, how surveys should be offered for parental feedback (impact measures), and ways to improve efficiency this year. TG decided that this would be a great project for me to work on this semester. As a group, we agreed that instead of placing a QR code for feedback on the stuffed animal, it should be placed on something that won’t be unknowingly discarded. Following this meeting, it was time for me to go home.

1/15: I started off my morning by assisting SR, the leader of Piedmont’s maternity programs. Weekly on Thursday mornings, there is a breastfeeding support group hosted on the Oconee Health Campus. I drove to the site and began to set up and learn the procedures as SR held personal sessions. My procedures included greeting the mothers as they entered, verifying their registration, registering them if not pre-registered, providing them with a card for weigh-ins, and preparing the scale for each baby’s initial weigh-in. As the mothers got settled, they would bring their baby (prior to feeding) for their weigh-in. I would weigh them and note the weight. Then as each mother breastfed on each side, they would come up for two more weigh-ins. I could then calculate the amount the baby was fed from each side, and how much total they consumed. Once all of the mothers left, I helped clean up the area and disinfect community items. After this, it was time for lunch, so I drove back to Piedmont Athens’ main hospital and checked in with KC and TM. They didn’t have any immediate tasks, so we all discussed schooling and their respective upcoming events that they think would give me a good experience. By the end of this collaboration, it was time for me to leave as I had an errand to run for KC at Advantage Behavioral Health before being done for the day.

1/16: Today, I started my morning off with TG. As the director of community relations, she deals with all forms of the community. This morning, I joined her as she gave a tour to a media location scout. We showed a portion of the hospital that was vacant, with empty nurses’ stations and patient rooms. This was really interesting, because there’s two purposes of trying to sell Piedmont as a film location. The first purpose is to create income for the hospital. The second purpose is to promote Piedmont Athens Regional and its services. Meaning that if the film chooses the Piedmont location, Piedmont will offer varying services, and therefore hope to receive notice and promotion from the film for such services. It’s not a linear form of health promotion, but it ultimately aims to improve the uptake and publicity of health information. Following this, I discussed my monthly schedule with TM. We discussed health promotion ideals, and she explained her job here is more connection based, rather than clinical. Still, she aims to increase Piedmont’s connections by acknowledging our health and wellness services. We came to an understanding of what events of hers would be ideal for me to attend, and the ones that I would get the most benefit out of. After assisting TG in organizing the office space and preparing materials for a large event, I was able to sit down with AD. AD spearheads SafeKids Athens. This group focuses on vehicle, water, household, and helmet safety, all of which is taught to both parents/caregivers and children. I really appreciated AD’s efforts and all that she does. We discussed specific dates of which I can help her, one being where I will aid in her carseat checks. Following this lengthy chat, it was time for me to head home for the weekend!

Summary of Week 1 Matched with Competencies:

• 1.2: Obtain primary data, secondary data, and other evidence-informed sources.
  • 1.2.1: Identify primary data, secondary data, and evidence-informed resources.
  • 1.2.6: Identify data gaps.
• 1.3: Analyze the data to determine the health of the priority population(s) and the factors that influence health.
  • 1.3.1: Determine the health status of the priority population(s).
  • 1.3.3: Identify the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors that impact the health and/or learning processes of the priority population(s).
• 1.4: Synthesize assessment findings to inform the planning process.
  • 1.4,1: Compare findings to norms, existing data, and other information.
  • 1.4.4: Develop recommendations based on findings.
• 2.4: Develop plans and materials for implementation and evaluations.
  • 2.4.3: Address factors that influence implementation.
• 6.5: Deliver the message(s) effectively using the identified media and strategies.
  • 6.5.2: Use public speaking skills.
• 8.2: Serve as an authoritative resource on health education and promotion.
  • 8.2.1: Evaluate personal and organizational capacity to provide consultation.
  • 8.2.2: Provide expert consultation, assistance, and guidance to individuals, groups, and organizations.

Summary/Reflection: This past week was an exciting experience. Working with HB and a company’s biometric data, the conversations allowed me to actually implement ideals I’ve learned through health promotion, specifically community health. By reading the health data and comparing it to previous years, it highlighted health gaps, personal and cumulative health status, and how health education should be tailored for this population. This data examination showed me the difficulty of establishing an effective plan for workplace health and wellness. With such variety in demographics and health status within workplaces, finding an incentive that is strong and achievable while also aiming to improve the most common health issues is so difficult. After learning about HB’s past experience, I suggested an anonymous report from company staff that offers information on their health worries and what incentive would encourage them to improve it. Regardless, learning the power of literature, discussion, and general understanding will be ongoing. Targeted, thoughtful action is needed going forward in workplace wellness. Attending the breastfeeding support class with SR gave me the opportunity to work directly with the community in a community setting. Though I didn’t contribute to planning in this setting, I was able to speak to new mothers about their baby’s health. From this, I learned the vulnerability in community health, seeing nervous new mothers lean on resources and others for support. Going forward, I hope to continue serving these populations and grow in understanding their issues.